BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) – A federal judge’s ruling will allow Bestwall to take a peek at several cases as it tries to prove asbestos lawyers drive up their clients’ recovery by telling the same story many different ways.
Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Baltimore federal court granted refused to block Bestwall’s subpoena on March 29 that it issued to Peter Angelos Law. The company is sorting out how much it needs to place in a trust to compensate asbestos claimants and wants to show past settlements are no indication because they were inflated by the business practices of plaintiffs lawyers.
The argument – one that has been successful before – is that asbestos lawyers target some companies with civil lawsuits while blaming others that have had to set up bankruptcy trusts to pay asbestos claims.
Before Garlock Sealing Technologies convinced a judge this was happening, companies facing lawsuits had no way to prove the same clients were telling different exposure histories in claims made to bankruptcy trusts.
After the Garlock ruling, which came after the company showed exposure history contradictions in the 15 cases it was permitted to investigate, 17 states passed laws requiring automatic disclosure of trust claims to civil defendants so they could find out who was being blamed for what.
Gallagher granted a look into seven of the Angelos firm’s cases. Bestwall issued subpoenas to three law firms for a total of 23 cases.
“I do think that the subpoenas have been narrowed in significant and important ways here during today's proceeding such that I do not find that there's any issues regarding burdensomeness or privilege that are presented at this point,” Gallagher said.
“The requested inquiry is a relatively narrow one in terms of what the parties are being asked to review and in terms of the preparation that would be required by the 30(b)(6) witness.
“Bestwall has eliminated any privilege issues by specifically stating that it does not require production of any privileged information and does not even require production of a privilege log or other information, so that inquiry will be limited to nonprivileged information as defined by the Angelos firm.”
The other firms to receive a subpoena – Florida’s Ferraro Law Firm and Texas’ Waters & Kraus – took note of the outcome and agreed to withdraw their motions to quash after reaching agreements with Bestwall.
The asbestos lawyers attempted to argue the subpoenas presented undue burdens on them and that they were inappropriate because the firms were not a part of the underlying litigation – Bestwall’s bankruptcy.
Bestwall is taking the hit for all asbestos liabilities for Georgia-Pacific, which has argued through the years with lawyers over whether its joint compound contained asbestos. Bestwall is one of dozens of companies to enter bankruptcy to avoid fighting claims in civil court.