Ga. Approves Asbestos Legislation

Georgia enacted meaningful asbestos/silica litigation re-form recently as Gov. Sonny Perdue signed House Bill 416, which requires plaintiffs to meet specific medical criteria before they can pursue an asbestos or silica claim in the court system.

“The enactment of this legislation in Georgia is a major victory and will help to end the litigation abuse cycle,” Robert Herlong, vice president and regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America said. “Across the country, litigation costs in these cases drain resources that would be available to aid truly sick individuals by clogging the court system and bankrupting defendants. Under this new law, only the truly injured claimants will be eligible for compensation.”

The Georgia law contains the following provisions:

Civil action alleging an asbestos or silica claim can not be filed unless the person makes a clear showing of effects due to a medical condition to which exposure to asbestos or silica was a substantial contributing factor.

Establishes medically acc-epted standards for differentiating persons who are truly impaired and those who are not.

The right to bring suit is preserved by those who have been exposed to asbestos or silica, but are unimpaired, until, when and if they develop an asbestos-related or silica-related disease.

Claims relating to more than one person cannot be joined in one trial unless everyone agrees. This addresses a current practice that has been a significant problem in asbestos litigation–joining multiple unrelated plaintiffs with claims against multiple unrelated defendants.

Asbestos or silica claims may only be filed in the county where the plaintiff resides or the county in which the exposure to asbestos or silica occurred.