Complimentary Published Article: Asbestos Trusts’ Records Purge Threatens Claims Process
Asbestos Trusts’ Records Purge Threatens Claims Process
Authored by Peter R. Kelso of Roux
The long-running effort by government, asbestos tort defendants, and bankruptcy debtors to obtain a meaningful level of visibility into the multibillion-dollar asbestos bankruptcy trust compensation system, was challenged recently by announcements from 11 trusts. On January 15, these trusts filed notices updates to their record retention policies—including procedures for the destruction of legacy data and documents related to claims paid or otherwise resolved.
In many instances, the trusts plan to destroy records of claims on a rolling basis, once a claim has been resolved for one year. Other trusts intend to apply a 10-year period of data and document retention from the date a claim is resolved. In each instance, the trusts announced their intent to begin their respective purge of data and documents, beginning on April 15.
For decades, asbestos personal injury attorneys have been able to bring claims on behalf of their clients against two independent compensation systems. The first is the tort system, where public lawsuits are filed against dozens of corporate defendants, and pursued in various state and federal courts across the country. The second is the asbestos bankruptcy trust system, which allows plaintiff attorneys to file claims against dozens of trusts on behalf of the same tort clients, with little to no coordination with the parallel tort lawsuits.
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