December 17, 2005

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger and Associated Press report on Mississippi judge James T. Kitchens's decision to dismiss more than 4,000 cases brought by the Texas law firm of Campbell Cherry, leaving 79 cases still pending in his Noxubee County circuit court. "All 4,202 claims dismissed were screened by Pascagoula's N&M Inc., which since 1996 has taken in more than $25 million for doing a majority of silicosis and asbestosis screenings across the United States," the Jackson paper reports. More than 20,000 lawsuits alleging silicosis, an occupational disease once seen as rare, were filed in Mississippi in recent years, and many more are expected to be dismissed in light of federal judge Janis Graham Jack's recent finding in Corpus Christi of indicia of massive fraud in silicosis/asbestosis claims.