WASHINGTON, D.C.—Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, made the following statement today on South Dakota’s enactment of S.B. 138:
“With its new asbestos bankruptcy reform law, South Dakota joins a growing national chorus of states and the federal government in working to stop fraud in the asbestos compensation system. Manipulating and concealing claims evidence in trust filings is fraud, yet this behavior is rampant in state courts throughout the country. South Dakota’s law stops this by preventing plaintiffs’ lawyers from making inconsistent claims in lawsuits and before asbestos trust funds.
“Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives also passed legislation reforming the nation’s asbestos bankruptcy trust system by requiring similar transparency to root out this type of fraud and abuse.
“South Dakota will join eight other states and the federal government in combatting plaintiffs’ lawyers’ systematic abuse of the $30 billion asbestos trust system, and we applaud this action.”
ILR seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the global, national, state, and local levels.
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