Oppose Senate Bill 1125 Rancho Mirage, CA
|
The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch, Chairman
Dear Senator Hatch, I am a mesothelioma victim and I am writing to express my strong opposition to S. 1125, the so-called "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act." I have many reasons for opposing S.1125. It would prevent all lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers for asbestos-related injury and illness. It would set up a special "asbestos court" which would make decisions concerning asbestos-injury compensation that would not be subject to meaningful judicial or administrative review. The asbestos court would operate as an adversarial body, but there would be no mechanism to insure that injured workers could obtain legal representation. The asbestos court would be using medical criteria that are set by the bill, which would exclude many, if not most, of the cases of asbestos-caused illness from receiving any compensation at all. The asbestos court would place an unnecessarily heavy evidentiary burden on injured workers, compelling them to produce decades-old evidence in order to prevail. The asbestos court would use a schedule of compensation that sharply limits the amount of compensation that an asbestos victim would receive to amounts far below what most victims win in court. The asbestos court would be funded at a level that is too low to compensate all asbestos victims, even at the bill's bargain-basement rates. Once the initial pool of money was exhausted, all remaining victims would have absolutely no recourse. S.1125 is a bill that could have been written by lobbyists for the asbestos companies. Its introduction has short-circuited meaningful negotiations that were making good progress toward producing a plan for an asbestos compensation trust fund that would be fair to people who have been injured by asbestos while providing asbestos manufacturers and insurers with the certainty they need to put asbestos litigation behind them. S. 1125 should be defeated. I am available to you, your staff, and your committee, should you want first-hand information from a mesothelioma victim. My telephone number is ( ) - . Sincerely, Ron Simkins { to read Ron Simkins' medical profile, please click here }
*** POSTED ON JUNE 9, 2003 *** |