Mass Torts and Bankruptcy: Asbestos

数百万美国工人暴露于石棉，导致各种疾病，从非致残到致命。 至少有50万人提出了与石棉接触有关的侵权索赔，由于一个典型的索赔人对20名被告提出索赔，因此可能提出了多达1000万项索赔。 责任成本已导致约75家大公司申请破产。 石棉责任的最终成本估计高达2000亿美元。 由于大量的石棉诉讼已经堵塞了许多法院的备审表，法官们尝试了新的法律的程序，以鼓励快速解决索赔，包括合并多个诉讼审判，审判分为多个阶段，和“花束”审判。 该项目的一部分涉及收集石棉审判的数据集，并使用回归分析来研究这些新的法律的程序如何影响审判结果和激励额外的原告提起诉讼。 此外，与其他类型的审判相比，石棉审判的很大一部分导致惩罚性赔偿。 该项目将估计石棉审判中惩罚性赔偿的频率、惩罚性赔偿集中于少数公司的程度以及惩罚性赔偿是否是石棉公司破产的一个重要因素。 该项目的其他部分将研究石棉和解如何受到审判结果的影响，具有大量石棉负债的公司如何决定是否申请破产，以及保险公司如何影响石棉公司的诉讼策略。 研究的最后一部分涉及比较石棉受害者的赔偿不同的大规模侵权行为的受害者的赔偿。 比较将显示石棉大规模侵权行为是否与其他大规模侵权行为有质的不同或只是更大。 该项目将促进对大规模侵权行为以及法院系统和破产系统如何处理这些侵权行为的科学认识。 特别是，它将确定由于为处理拥挤的法院备审案件而开发的程序创新而导致石棉责任和破产增加的程度。 这项研究将提供信息和分析，为有关如何处理石棉和其他大规模侵权行为以及是否需要采取新的方法（如行政赔偿计划）的政策辩论提供信息。

Several million U.S. workers were exposed to asbestos, which causes a variety of diseases that range from non-disabling to fatal. At least 500,000 individuals have filed tort claims related to asbestos exposure and, because a typical claimant files claims against 20 defendants, as many as 10 million claims may have been filed. Liability costs have caused about 75 large firms to file for bankruptcy. The eventual cost of asbestos liability is estimated to be as high as $200 billion. Because the large volume of asbestos lawsuits has clogged the dockets of many courts, judges have tried new legal procedures to encourage quick resolution of claims-including consolidation of multiple lawsuits for trial, bifurcation of trials into multiple phases, and "bouquet" trials. Part of the project involves collecting a dataset of asbestos trials and using regression analysis to examine how these new legal procedures affect trial outcomes and incentives for additional plaintiffs to file lawsuits. Also, a large fraction of asbestos trials result in punitive damages compared to other types of trials. The project will estimate the frequency of punitive damage awards in asbestos trials, the degree of concentration of punitive damage awards on a few firms and whether punitive damage awards have been a significant factor in asbestos firms' bankruptcies. Other parts of the project will examine how asbestos settlements are influenced by trial outcomes, how firms with large asbestos liabilities decide whether to file for bankruptcy, and how insurers affect asbestos firms' litigation strategies. A final part of the research involves comparing compensation of asbestos victims to compensation of victims of a different mass tort. The comparison will show whether the asbestos mass tort is qualitatively different from other mass torts or merely larger. The project will advance scientific knowledge of mass torts and how the court system and the bankruptcy system deal with them. In particular it will determine the extent to which asbestos liabilities and bankruptcies have increased as a result of procedural innovations that were developed to deal with congested court dockets. The research will provide information and analysis to inform the policy debate concerning how asbestos and other mass torts should be handled and whether a new approach, such as an administrative compensation scheme, is needed.