Madison County, Illinois – So far in 2008, asbestos-related lawsuits make up more than half of all the major civil cases filed in Madison County Circuit Court.

On April 10, number 165 was filed, on behalf of a deceased Virginia man who died from mesothelioma. This makes the 300th civil suit, and the 165th asbestos-related suit seeking damages of $50,000 or more this year.

According to this new lawsuit, the deceased, William Pierce, was employed as a welder and assembly line worker between 1940 and 1984.

The estate of the deceased claims he was exposed to asbestos fibers during the course of his employment and during home automotive repairs. The suit names ten defendants, including the Atlas Asbestos Company, Bell Asbestos Mines, Bondex International, Foseco, Georgia-Pacific, John Crane, Pneumo Abex, RPM International, RPM Inc., and T.H. Agriculture & Nutrition.

The estate claims that the defendants knew or should have known of the dangers of asbestos and negligently failed to provide workers with hygiene and safety information to prevent exposure.

The estate of William Pierce claims that the exposure prevented him from working and also caused physical and mental suffering. The suit is seeking at least $200,000 in damages.

In Madison County, Illinois, lawsuits like these are almost commonplace. With 165 filed already this year, that’s an average of more than one per day. Furthermore, a large number of the suits are filed by out-of-state plaintiffs.

The reason this occurs is that Madison County, Illinois (and other locations such as Kanawha County in West Virginia) has developed something of a reputation for finding in favor of the plaintiff in lawsuits such as these. Overall, judges in Madison County are more likely to hold corporations accountable for negligent actions such as those alleged in asbestos-related lawsuits.

And the law allows anyone from any part of the country to file a lawsuit in any other part of the country providing they can prove that one party (either a plaintiff or a defendant) has some connection to the state where the suit has been filed.

That means, as long as a plaintiff can establish a link to Madison County, they can file their case there. Given that many of these large asbestos companies are multi-state entities, establishing such a link is not usually difficult. The end result is a large number of asbestos-related cases being filed in likely locations such as Madison County, Illinois.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Asbestos Litigation, Illinois. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.