State Supreme Court order favors the sickest patients

A look at the costs:
Claimants get 42 cents of every dollar spent on litigation.
Lawyer fees and other related costs get the remaining 58 cents.
Litigation has cost businesses and insurance companies more than $70 billion.
Opponents of Michigan's new court order say 10 new judges will be needed to cover cases, but it's unknown how many cases will be dropped.
Source: Rand Institute for Civil Justice, Detroit News research

Questionable asbestos cases have plagued the courts in Michigan and across the nation for 40 years. So it was good to see the Michigan Supreme Court issue an administrative order that says all asbestos-related cases in the state must be judged on their own merits.


That should eliminate many of the non-injury cases that clog the courts and it will give precedence to those cases that involve the sickest of claimants. No longer will trial lawyers in Michigan be able to bundle cases, which often is done to leverage larger settlements.

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A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accused a disbarred attorney of defrauding thousands of clients out of $13.5 million in settlement money from lawsuits claiming they were made ill by exposure to asbestos.


Later in the day, Louis S. Robles, 58, pleaded not guilty to the indictment's 41 fraud counts. Robles, who was disbarred in 2003 after an investigation by the Florida Bar into his financial practices, surrendered to federal authorities on Monday.


The indictment alleged Robles took money from his asbestos clients' trust fund accounts and used it to pay for personal real estate, including a 9,000-square-foot waterfront mansion on Key Biscayne, apartments in New York and Los Angeles and a condominium in Telluride, Colo.
It also accused him of using settlement money to invest in movie production and a waste management firm, and to pay his ex-wife's alimony.

“Louis Robles abused the trust of his clients, stole their money, and spent it on himself and his various business ventures,”

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a statement.


There was no immediate comment from Robles.


U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen T. Brown set bond at $1.25 million. Prosecutors said Robles had more than 7,000 clients in litigation against various companies that used asbestos, which has been linked to cancer and other problems.
Because Robles' property has been sold and his bank and investment accounts frozen, a federal public defender was appointed to represent him. Under sentencing guidelines, Robles if convicted faces a maximum 19½ years in prison, the public defender said.



Source: Sign On San Diego

Court OKs asbestos lawsuit


Not a day goes by when Anthony Olivo doesn't wish that it was him, not his wife, who died as a result of asbestos.


On Monday, the 85-year-old resident of Goucester, New Jersey, won a state Supreme Court decision which allows him to sue Exxon Mobil - one of more than 30 companies he has said were in some way responsible for his wife Eleanor's death in August 2001.

"It hurts me so bad," Olivo said, fighting back tears during an interview from his home on Monday. "Why didn't the good Lord give it back to me? She didn't deserve what she got."

For 37 years, Olivo worked as a steamfitter and welder. He was a union man, hired by several independent contractors to work at various sites in the state, among them Exxon Mobil's refinery in Paulsboro.
Each day, after his shift ended, Olivo would return home where his wife would make sure that he wore something over his shoes before going straight to the basement to change out of his work clothes.

Then, as she did every night, Eleanor would do the laundry.


Since Eleanor had never worked on the asbestos-covered pipes, doctors determined that she got her disease from her husband's work clothes.

"I had no idea I was taking this stuff home," Olivo said. "If I had known, I would have left my clothes at the work site."

The court determined that Exxon Mobil, which owned the property, should have known she was in danger.
The court said Exxon has been aware since 1937 that exposure to asbestos dust or raw asbestos was associated with disease.

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