Asbestos Reform in Ohio
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Several years ago, I wrote a commentary on the abuses of the asbestos liability system, the system’s negative impact on Ohio’s economy, and the need for reform. Shortly thereafter, the General Assembly enacted legislation reforming the asbestos liability system and the Ohio Supreme Court recently upheld that law, including its applicability to pending cases. As a result, nearly 30,000 cases that had been clogging Ohio’s court system have been dismissed. Recently, additional abuses have come to light, including plaintiffs filing multiple, inconsistent claims against different defendants for the same injury. I wrote this in-depth discussion of such abuses, exemplified by a recent Cleveland-area case, for the Federalist Society’s Class Action Watch publication last year. In this new Buckeye Viewpoint, I give a brief overview of Ohio’s successful efforts to reform the asbestos liability system and describe a new bill that is designed to address the problem of “double dipping” that was exposed in the recent Cleveland case. Hopefully, Ohio will continue to lead on reforming the asbestos liability system.
To effectuate such change, Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) introduced legislation in the Ohio Senate that mandates any plaintiff bringing an asbestos tort action must disclose any previous claims he or she has filed with asbestos trusts. Passage of this legislation would help restore fairness, transparency and accountability to the asbestos liability system, which has been subject to fraud and abuse for too long.”








