We’ve all watched those TV commercials for at least one law firm that specializes in representing people who are dying from mesothelioma, a dreadful side effect of working with asbestos.
Several things I didn’t know: first, asbestos is still being used or still remains in buildings that, I would have thought, should have gotten rid of it years ago. But worst, many states have been busy little bees passing laws protecting companies who own asbestos producing companies from just the sort of lawsuit that you hear about on TV.
Victims of asbestos-related diseases are being barred in Michigan, for one state, from suing. And who is responsible for this legislation? ALEC, the right-wing pro-corporate, unelected gang who cookie-cuts their very own anti-regulation laws for elected officials who customarily don’t even bother changing a word that ALEC writes when they offer up these laws for a vote. They probably don’t even read the laws, either.
A plaintiff’s lawyer in Florida (another one of these anti-human-being states) says, “They want plaintiffs to die.”
I picked up this story from Lawyers.com blog. It quotes, painfully, a construction worker (and union guy) whose father died of mesothelioma, but who himself is now barred from suing. It’s worth reading: ALEC Puts the Screws to Asbestos Victims | Lawyers.com Blog.