Government of, by, and for Halliburton

Bush Takes Aim at Asbestos Lawsuits



the courts and hinder economic growth, President Bush is urging Congress to change the way people are compensated for diseases caused by the deadly material.



In his third event this week calling for legal reforms, Bush was to speak near Detroit to suggest ways lawmakers can tackle asbestos litigation reform an issue that has deadlocked Congress in recent years.



Before leaving for Clinton Township, Mich., Bush was scheduled to meet Friday with the top two members of a bipartisan panel he's setting up to recommend ways to reform the tax code.



Bush claims 74 companies have been forced into bankruptcy because of asbestos-related litigation that has cost more than $70 billion, the majority of which is not seen by victims but swallowed up by legal and processing fees. Employees of these companies saw the value of their pension accounts shrink by an average of 25 percent, the administration says.



The volume of asbestos lawsuits is beyond the capacity of our courts to handle, and it is growing," Bush said earlier this week. "More than 100,000 new asbestos claims were filed last year alone."



The American Trial Lawyers Association, however, says many of the companies that filed for bankruptcy were reorganized, not liquidated, and that few cases filed in court actually go to trial. Fifty to 60 cases have gone to trial annually in the past few years, Carl Carlton, a spokesman for the group, said Thursday.



"That's hardly clogging the courts," Carlton said. "Why isn't the president of the United States standing up for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who were poisoned by these companies that knew precisely what they were doing? They continued to expose their workers and their customers to this dangerous substance. Now the president wants to reward them."

Why is Bush focusing on asbestos lawsuits? Could this be why?

Halliburton, the oil company, famed for its work in Iraq, yesterday claimed it had ended the asbestos problems that have dogged it for years with a $5 billion settlement.



Under the deal it will pay $2.3 billion in cash and almost 60m shares into a trust fund that will compensate current and future victims of asbestos-related diseases.



Halliburton insists that the settlement cannot be appealed against, although US courts have often been sympathetic to new claims.

The Bush Administration sure takes care of its own. This would ensure that no pesky new claims will show up in court.