Everything You Wanted to Know About Asbestos… In Ten Minutes or Less

The asbestos liability crisis is one of those issues that deserves a lot more attention than it gets. It deserves attention because part of the issue involves people dying painful deaths who are getting — pardon the word — screwed, often by the very lawyers who supposedly should be helping them. (Where are the producers of Erin Brockovich when it comes to this aspect of law?) It also deserves attention because it is costing our economy a fortune — the kind of fortune (hundreds of billions of dollars) — that causes unemployment on a grand scale (tens of thousands now; maybe 100 times that later, if we don’t do something soon).

Why mention this today, August 8, on a date when everyone else is talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger? Because I’ve just come across a superbly written succinct explanation of what all of this is about on FindLaw.

So, if you have been wondering what the asbestos crisis is about and how we might solve it, but don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on this issue, I recommend these two short pieces by Brooklyn Law Professor Anthony J. Sebok. Part one is here; part two is here.

They are short, I promise.

After you read those pieces, if you still want to know more, I’ll modestly recommend a couple of the short papers I’ve written on the topic. The latest, about Senator hatch’s work for a solution, is here, one from earlier this year about the magnitude of the problem is here. A new one is forthcoming; when we post it on the web, I’ll note its web address here in the blog.



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