August 28, 2006

Must-read coverage how asbestos plaintiffs "double-dip" into billions of dollars of asbestos bankruptcy trusts run by plaintiffs' lawyers (like Baron & Budd, the namesake of John Edwards's money man, Fred Baron) through making boldly inconsistent claims of exposure. (Daniel Fisher, "Double-Dippers", Forbes, Sep. 4). Courts are cracking down for the first time, though the only people suffering consequences so far are clients, rather than the unethical attorneys—the shareholders who lost their money and the workers who lost their jobs in the fraud are out of luck. The Friable Thoughts blog comments:

This story on how plaintiff's lawyers are filing claims with asbestos bankruptcy trusts shouldn't come as a big surprise to many defense lawyers. With the settlement amounts confidential and claims records hard to get, who wouldn't have expected plaintiff's lawyers to make exposure claims that were inconsistent with claims they would make in litigation against non-bankrupt defendants?