In Congress yesterday a House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on alleged abuses in absestos litigation involving forum shopping, witness coaching, fraudulent diagnoses and double dipping as reported by Alison Frankel for Thomson Reuters.
In regard to double dipping by which some plaintiffs allegedly are receiving multiple recoveries for the same injury from different sources Dionne Searcey from The Wall Street Journal Law Blog writes:
Defense attorneys have long claimed that plaintiffs double dip and get inflated payouts by filing multiple asbestos claims, both in court and with asbestos trusts, for the same injury. Because settlements are secret and the trusts aren't required to make public their payouts, it's difficult to verify whether claimants are getting overpaid.
Perhaps the most damning testimony at the hearing came from law professor Lester Brickman who assailed the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to investigate alleged instances of fraudulent diagnoses pursuant to mass screenings for asbestos injuries which undermines the integrity of the legal system as reported by Samuel Knight for Main Justice.
Brickman testified from a prepared written statement:
Effectively, what law enforcement agencies have done by their inaction is grant lawyers and the medical personnel they hire a special dispensation to commit fraud on a massive scale in certain mass tort litigations. * * * This failure of law enforcement and the resultant imprimatur given to the perpetration of mass tort fraud should not be allowed to stand unchallenged.
It's one thing if there are dirty practices in asbestos litigation; it's another thing if law enforcement is turning a blind eye. Let's hope the alleged commission of possible crimes is not being compounded by an apparent collapse of good government.
Further reading that may be of interest:
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