Courts Unable To Hear All Cases, As Fraudulent Cases Increase
The most difficult part of this question lies in whether or not any form of legislature would be capable of dealing with fraudulent silica-related lawsuits. A freshman house member, who is also a physician, has written a senate bill. This bill is the darling of business interests who are petitioning the legislature to reduce the number of claims. They say these cases are bogging down the entire system. Personal injury lawyers are simply greedy trial lawyers, according tho business groups. They exploit victims with the help of unscrupulous doctors who misread x rays. They also believe that businesses are being stressed too much by the costs of trying to defend themselves from fraudulent claims.
There have been some shifts in tort law, which legislate that only one judge in the entire state will hear any new case regarding asbestos. Thus, many personal injury attorneys claim there is no need for any laws limiting cases since this tort will clear this up. But, unreasonable claims are still being submitted, and some personal injury lawyers are now using the newest exposure claims, which is silica.
Certain business interests contend that the honest claims can be singled out from the fraudulent claims by simply requiring claimants to show proof of physical effects suffered from exposure to asbestos rather than simply producing an X-ray. To that end, the legislation under consideration would adjust a proposal from the bar association which articulated medical requirements, such as imagine studies, respiratory exams and physician reports, prior to authorization of any lawsuit’s commencement.
In addition, this bill would offer a couple specific protections to workers who know they were exposed but haven’t yet proven there was damage done. One measure is that the typical two year statute of limitations is not applicable. If a worker is prevented from following through with a claim, but finds later on severe symptoms have developed and will pass a medical test, the right to file suit again would be allowed no matter how long it’s been. Second protection in the bill would prevent insurance companies being able to deny coverage to a worker when there’s asbestos exposure showing up on a medical test.
Protecting the workers is an important element of this legislation, but some critics indicate that the medical requirements are unfair. This new proposal would keep medical standards where they are, and workers would still be able to sue, but before they could a judge would have to refer the claim to another to determine whether it has any medical merit. The intent of the bill is not to curb the rights of workers, but is instead to cut back on the wasteful claims that flood the courts.
House members claim that doctors who simply lie, as advocates of this bill claim they do, then raising medical standards won’t fix the problem. After all, the doctors could continue lying about a different set of regulations just as easily. Regardless of the differing motives behind the new legislation, it seems that the state is serious about trying to flush invalid claims from the system. Workers who have solid claims should be heard so that they can receive relief as soon as they can get it. Though the current bill is only before the House, the bill’s drafter believes that it should be taken up by the Senate as well.
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