Since the early 1980’s, companies responsible for inflicting asbestos-related illness on hundreds of thousands of Americans have sought to limit or escape legal liability through filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
By filing Chapter 11, a company is given immediate immunity from lawsuits filed by the victims of its asbestos products. The company is then given many years to satisfy a number of legal requirements while the victims, many of whom do not have the luxury of time, are forced to wait. Upon meeting the requirements, the company is granted permanent immunity from lawsuits filed by all past and future victims, and is able to emerge from bankruptcy and continue doing business as usual.The one consolation to asbestos illness victims is the requirement that the company pool assets and insurance proceeds and place them in a trust to compensate past and future victims. The trust establishes guidelines dictating the amount of compensation to be paid to claimants based primarily on severity of illness. While it is not necessary for victims to appear in court or provide testimony, the amount received from the trust is often far less than what would have been received if the company could be sued in a lawsuit.
Despite their many shortcomings, asbestos bankruptcy trusts are becoming an increasingly important component of the compensation available to victims of asbestos disease. This is due to a continuing decrease in the number of viable companies that can be sued in court and a continuing increase in the number of companies filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In order to aid in the understanding of how asbestos bankruptcy trusts came to exist, how trust claims are processed and the current status and future outlook of these trusts, we have assembled a comprehensive guide to asbestos bankruptcy trusts entitled: “Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.” Click here to review this helpful resource and continue to visit Mesothelioma Bytes for the latest news on asbestos bankruptcy trusts.
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