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13 Cardozo L. Rev. 1919 (1991 - 1992)
Critical Analysis of the Brickman Administrative Proposal: Who Declared Ware on Asbestos Victims' Rights

handle is hein.journals/cdozo13 and id is 1941 raw text is: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BRICKMAN ADMINISTRATIVE PROPOSAL: WHO DECLARED WAR ON ASBESTOS VICTIMS' RIGHTS?* Ronald L. Motley** and Susan Nial*** INTRODUCTION The proposal authored by Professor Lester Brickman,1 which is the focus of this article, reads like an asbestos industry manifesto. It is a proposal that springs from a premise so riddled with fallacy and ignorance that, if it was not being debated in a forum supported by the federal government and by the American people's tax dollars, it would not be deserving of more than casual comment. One comes away with the overall impression that the asbestos litigation problem was caused by the perpetual motion of something called the contin- gent fee engine. This euphemism, coined apparently by Professor Brickman, conjures up a vision of a huge machine producing asbestos lawsuits out of thin air, run no doubt by a corps of plaintiffs' lawyers whose goal in life is to ruin law abiding and socially conscious corporations. Professor Brickman's personal ignorance, or personal bias with regard to the asbestos crisis is clearly showing.2 In Professor Brick- man's world, peopled with defenseless asbestos corporations brought * This paper is based on comments delivered at the Administrative Conference of the United States, October 31, 1991 Colloquy: An Administrative Alternative to Tort Litigation to Resolve Asbestos Claims. ** Senior Litigation Partner, Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson & Poole, a Charleston, South Carolina law firm, specializing in the resolution and litigation of asbestos disease vic- tims' claims. J.D., 1971; B.A., 1966, University of South Carolina. *** Associate, Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson & Poole. J.D., 1986; B.E.S., 1983, Uni- versity of Bridgeport. I Lester Brickman, The Asbestos Claims Management Act of 1991: A Proposal to the United States Congress, 13 CARDOZO L. REV. 1891 (1992). 2 Professor Brickman's credibility must be severely questioned when during his testimony he failed to reveal that the only source of support for his outrageous statement that in excess of half of the pending asbestos claims are those of unimpaired claimants is none other than a position paper written by the Special Counsel to the euphemistically named Center for Claims Resolution. The Center is a coalition of defendants who have pooled their resources to mount a combined defense to all claims brought by asbestos victims. It is hardly an unbiased source of information relating to the meritorious nature of asbestos claims. Perhaps that is the very reason that Professor Brickman failed to credit them as his source. On the other hand, per- haps it is his employment as a paid asbestos defense expert which causes him to be less than candid about his sources. 1919

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