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Mass Tort Litigation: Asbestos

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Abstract

Litigation over harm due to asbestos exposure is the largest mass tort in U.S. history. This article explores why the asbestos mass tort grew so large and argues that a large set of factors, rather than a single cause, are needed to explain the size of the asbestos mass tort. Among these factors are the serious of asbestos diseases and the fact that harm due to asbestos exposure was concealed by producers of asbestos products, changes in the law and legal procedures that favored plaintiffs, the large number of both potential plaintiffs and potential defendants, and plaintiffs’ lawyers high profit from finding and representing asbestos claimants. I also argue that because of the unique circumstances explaining asbestos litigation, future mass torts are unlikely to be as large. The article also discusses research on asbestos litigation and explores various approaches–successful and unsuccessful–that have been proposed to reduce the number of asbestos claims.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Michelle J. White

Authors
  1. Michelle J. White
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle J. White .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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White, M.J. (2019). Mass Tort Litigation: Asbestos. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_72

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