An ongoing push for legislation targeting asbestos lawsuits suffered a major blow Sunday when an authority on the topic called the draft bill "a mistake" and "unnecessary," The Associated Press reports.
Retired Kanawha Circuit Judge Andrew MacQueen presided over thousands of asbestos claims during his 22 years on the bench. He also helped West Virginia's court system develop a management plan for these complicated cases that has resolved tens of thousands of additional claims.
"There's no reason for it,'' MacQueen told lawmakers. "None of the players in the asbestos litigation are coming to you asking for changes to this arrangement.''
Advocates of the bill include insurers and the state Chamber of Commerce, which has included it on its 2008 agenda.
07 January 2008
Legislature 2008: Asbestos
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I noticed this article in today's Gazzette with the biased headline "Expert: Asbestos Proposal Bad Idea." Since the judge was simply defending a system he helped put together against change, a more unbiased headline would have been something like "Judge: Don't Change My Asbestos Plan."
I realize that the writer of the column probably doesn't get to choose the headline, and I have no idea whether the new proposal is better, but the idea that someone who designed a plan and put it in place can be considered an unbiased expert regarding someone else's proposed modification to that plan is simply preposterous. It's this type of bias toward the status quo in a state ranked at the bottom of so many categories that helps keep us down there.
Post a Comment