WASHINGTON -- Trial attorney and U.S. Sen. John Edwards is well-liked by the plaintiff's bar. Too well-liked perhaps, since the Justice Department is investigating apparently illegal contributions to his presidential campaign -- which have since been returned -- from an Arkansas law firm. Although Edwards is not culpable, the incident illustrates how tort lawyers play the American political game, making liability reform so difficult. Yet the enormity of the disaster created by asbestos litigation is finally pushing the Congress to act.
The first asbestos case was filed in 1966. There have since been 700,000 others -- 200,000 in the past two years alone. About 8,400 firms have been sued. The process already has cost $54 billion; the bill could eventually hit $270 billion or more.
The litigation has overwhelmed many companies: 67 firms have gone bankrupt. Observes a recent study by economists Joseph Stiglitz, Jonathan Orszag and Peter Orszag for the American Insurance Association: "The staggering costs of asbestos liabilities have pushed many defendant companies into bankruptcy or to the brink thereof."