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72 Def. Counsel J. 241 (2005)
Emerging Trends in Asbestos Premises Liability Claims

handle is hein.journals/defcon72 and id is 243 raw text is: Emerging Trends in Asbestos Premises Liability Claims Understanding Current Theories of Liability and Proposed Legislation to Protect Your Client By Kenneth R. Meyer, Ivan J. Whittenburg, and Brian P. Sharkey Y OUR client has never manufactured asbestos-containing products and remains untouched by the devastating waves of asbestos litigation that have reduced financially stable companies to empty shells. Do not allow yourself or your client to become complacent. The turbulent waters of asbestos litigation have seeped into virtually every type of economic activity in our country. Defense attorneys are striving to protect their clients from the perils attendant to the most enduring mass tort litigation recorded in the annals of American jurisprudence - a marathon that has yet to reach full stride.2 On September 25, 2002, the Rand Institute for Civil Justice released an Interim Report (Rand Report) estimating that only twenty to fifty percent of the total potential asbestos-related personal injury claims were filed and that defendants and insurers faced approximately $145 to $210 billion in future asbestos litigation costs. Last year, Stephen Carroll, the senior economist who authored the Rand Report, estimated that defendants had already paid $70 billion on 730,000 claims, making asbestos litigation the most expensive mass tort in American history.4 In 2003, plaintiffs filed approximately 110,000 asbestos claims- 1 The Job-Eating Asbestos Blob, WALL ST. J., Jan. 23, 2002, at A22. See also Susan Cornwell, Asbestos Costs U.S. Companies $70 Billion So Far, REUTERS, Feb. 6, 2004. 2 See Stephen J. Carroll et al., Asbestos Litigation Costs and Compensation. An Interim Report (Rand Institute for Civil Justice), Sept. 25, 2002, at v. I Id. at 78. 4 Cornwell, supra note 1. IADC Member Kenneth R. Meyer is a principal in the Morristown, New Jersey and New York City law firm of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, where he is Co-Chair of the firm's Toxic Tort and Product Liability Department. Mr. Meyer is a Certified Civil Trial Attorney in New Jersey, and he is admitted to the bars of New York and Texas. He practices in the areas of complex product liability, toxic and mass tort, and personal injury litigation. Mr. Meyer has been involved in handling and managing over 100,000 asbestos cases in over thirty states for the last fifteen years. Mr. Meyer received his J.D. in 1982 from Seton Hall University School of Law, cum laude, and his B.A. from Colgate University in 1976. Ivan J. Whittenburg is counsel in the Morristown, New Jersey and New York City law firm of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and is a member of the firm's Toxic Tort and Product Liability Department. Mr. Whittenburg is admitted to the bars of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He practices in the areas of complex product liability, toxic and mass tort, and personal injury litigation. Mr. Whittenburg has been involved in handling hundreds of asbestos cases over the course of the last fourteen years. Mr. Whittenburg received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law and his B.A. from Rutgers University, with honors, in 1985. Brian P. Sharkey is an associate with Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and is a member of the firm's Toxic Tort and Product Liability Department. Mr. Sharkey is admitted to the bars of New Jersey and New York and he practices in the areas of complex product liability and toxic and mass tort. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law in 2000 and his B.A. from The College of New Jersey in 1997.

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