Mass Torts and Bankruptcy: Asbestos

数百万美国工人接触过石棉，石棉会导致各种疾病，从不会致残到致命。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向20个被告提出索赔，因此可能有多达1000万份索赔被提交。责任成本已经导致大约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塞满了许多法院的案卷，法官们尝试了新的法律程序来鼓励快速解决索赔——包括合并多起诉讼进行审判，将审判分阶段进行，以及“花束审判”。该项目的部分内容包括收集石棉试验数据集，并使用回归分析来研究这些新的法律程序如何影响审判结果以及对更多原告提起诉讼的激励。此外，与其他类型的审判相比，很大一部分石棉审判导致惩罚性损害赔偿。该项目将估计石棉审判中惩罚性损害赔偿裁决的频率、惩罚性损害赔偿裁决集中于少数公司的程度以及惩罚性损害赔偿裁决是否成为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，承担大量石棉责任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与其他大规模侵权行为受害者的赔偿。通过比较可以看出，石棉大规模侵权行为与其他大规模侵权行为是有质的区别，还是规模更大。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此类行为的科学认识。特别是，它将确定石棉责任和破产在多大程度上是由于为处理法庭诉讼案件拥挤而制定的程序创新而增加的。这项研究将提供资料和分析，以便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一种诸如行政赔偿计划之类的新办法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.