The U.S. Supreme Court in Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 597 (1997) refers to the asbestos litigation as a “crisis.” In Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 821 (1999), the Court notes the “elephantine mass” of cases generated by for-profit screening companies in this era of asbestos litigation. Read More
Congress enacts the General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA), 49 U.S.C. § 40101 note, which establishes an 18-year statute of repose (an outer time limit) for lawsuits against manufacturers of noncommercial general aviation aircraft and their component parts. The manufacturing and sale of general aviation aircraft in the United States had faltered due to the skyrocketing cost of liability insurance. As a result of GARA, the industry rebounds. See Victor E. Schwartz & Leah Lorber, The General Aviation Revitalization Act: How Rational Civil Justice Reform Revitalized an Industry, 67 J. Air L. & Com. 1269 (2002). Read More