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People with diagnosed asbestos-related diseases often suffer greatly in the time leading up to their deaths. Incurable diseases like mesothelioma can make it almost impossible to breathe, complicating even the simplest tasks. In the past few decades, asbestos victims and their survivors have finally been able to make some headway in getting companies responsible for asbestos exposure to pay for medical care and other costs.
Congress is currently considering creating a national trust fund to replace the thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits against manufacturers and other businesses. This means that victims and their families will have to use a newly formed administrative system to file claims, rather than being allowed to sue the party they believe to be at fault. Limits placed on the potential awards would mean that victims might receive less than a jury would award them.
Under the bill, all asbestos-related lawsuits would be taken out of the courts and settlements would be paid from a national trust fund. Insurance companies and asbestos manufacturers-or the companies that currently own them-would pay into a fund of about $114 billion. Each victim or surviving family member would get an amount of money determined by the severity of the asbestos-related illness. The maximum amount any claimant could receive from the fund would be $1 million.
For families who have lost loved ones to asbestos-related diseases, the establishment of the fund seems to provide unfair protection to the companies at the cost of their victims. Lisa Witkowski, whose father suffered three agonizing months before dying from asbestos-related cancer, is outraged by the thought that she may not have the right to confront a jury with the evidence that her father died needlessly through the fault of his employer. "I want them to look at my face in court, and I want them to look at pictures of my dad gasping for his last breaths, then make a decision," Witkowski claimed. "Why on earth someone would permit this legislation to occur.. I can''t even find the words for it."
Witkowski and her mother have joined a lobbying campaign against the proposed trust fund. Opponents of the fund claim that it could run out of money because there are so many victims, not to mention others who likely have yet to be diagnosed with the slowly progressing diseases associated with asbestos exposure.
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