Interesting editorial today in The New York Times online edition that caught me by surprise.
Rarely do you see an editorial castigating the Senate Democrats, and in this case Senator Harry Reid, for attempting to orchestrate a move to block the progress of the asbestos bill.
As you may or may not know, this bill is not yet in it's final form, but majority leader Senator Bill Frist has made it a priority, but a minority of senate democrats are fighting this bill at the behest of the trial lawyers. Now it's pretty clear i'm a big supporter of plaintiffs and trial lawyers, but I really don't get what is to be gained by blocking this bill. The current situation with asbestos is a national disaster, judges and courts are investigating the medical premise of many of the exams of those filing claims, editorial writers across the spectrum are taking aim at this issue, and while this isn't a perfect bill, it's a far better solution then what we have now.
If the bill is passed in anything resembling it's current form, it will create the opportunity of a life time for the settlement industry, so starting this week we will begin to carefully follow and broadcast the elements of the bill that are of key interest to settlement professionals and trial lawyers.
