Many legislative measures have been taken in an attempt to reduce the ever increasing costs of asbestos litigation, including notably the Asbestos Claims Criteria and Compensation Act of 2003 and the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2006. Both the acts sought the creation of a privately funded, publicly administered national trust fund to compensate asbestos victims, provided they met certain rigid medical criteria. However, neither act has so far become law.
Another means employed to minimize litigation costs associated with asbestos is that of outsourcing litigation support services. In many cases, outsourcing has become a necessity for defendant corporations because of the enormous costs associated with defending such mass actions. Asbestos litigation often takes a heavy toll on defendant corporations who are forced to spend enormous amounts of money on preparing their defense and going to trial. Processes such as discovery compliance generally take up a large amount of time and resources. More often than not, defendant corporations are forced to seek the help of large law firms who charge heavily for providing such litigation support services. Owing to these and other factors, even large multinational asbestos defendants are forced to settle claims rather than take the matter to trial. However, many such corporations have begun off shoring asbestos litigation material to outsourcing firms in Asia where legal and paralegal personnel work on analyzing, interpreting and compiling this “elephantine mass” of documentation.[1]
[1] Du Pont outsource sensitive legal documentation work to offshore locations; www.offshoringtimes.com/Pages/2006/BPO_news1237.html
