Asbestos Trial Settings Are ‘Trigger’ For Overwhelming Madison Docket
From the Madison County Record
That 90 percent of asbestos cases in Madison County are filed for out of state residents is not the only problem facing a docket that has doubled over the last three years.
Defense attorneys say that one of the most critical ways to shrink what has become a national asbestos docket would be to reduce the number of cases set for trial during each trial week.
“If we could just get some relief with the trial slots that would help with the jurisdiction” said Lisa LaConte, defense attorney with Heyl Royster in Edwardsville.
LaConte said that the availability of trial slots and the fact that forum non conveniens motions filed by defendants have been denied in Madison County work together to create an attractive place for plaintiffs.
“It doesn’t boil down to one issue,” she said. “All issues build on each other.”
Calling trial settings the “trigger,” LaConte said that as long as the local court maintains its current practice of setting sometimes 50 cases or more for trial on any given week, more lawsuits will be filed there. As more cases are filed and less cases are transferred to more appropriate jurisdictions, more trial slots are required to resolve the excessive number of case, creating a vicious cycle, she said.
“If you were not pushing so many cases through the trial process, it would make this a more equal jurisdiction,” LaConte said. “There would be no real incentive to bring them here, because there is no fast track to a trial date.”
Defense attorney Brian Huelsmann of HeplerBroom agreed, saying that when out of state cases remain in Madison County, a larger number of trial settings are created as a result.
“That is where it all stems,” he said. “If the cases are not getting dismissed on forum, they get trial settings.”
“That has been the issue for a long time,” he added.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Madison County Record
That 90 percent of asbestos cases in Madison County are filed for out of state residents is not the only problem facing a docket that has doubled over the last three years.
Defense attorneys say that one of the most critical ways to shrink what has become a national asbestos docket would be to reduce the number of cases set for trial during each trial week.
“If we could just get some relief with the trial slots that would help with the jurisdiction” said Lisa LaConte, defense attorney with Heyl Royster in Edwardsville.
LaConte said that the availability of trial slots and the fact that forum non conveniens motions filed by defendants have been denied in Madison County work together to create an attractive place for plaintiffs.
“It doesn’t boil down to one issue,” she said. “All issues build on each other.”
Calling trial settings the “trigger,” LaConte said that as long as the local court maintains its current practice of setting sometimes 50 cases or more for trial on any given week, more lawsuits will be filed there. As more cases are filed and less cases are transferred to more appropriate jurisdictions, more trial slots are required to resolve the excessive number of case, creating a vicious cycle, she said.
“If you were not pushing so many cases through the trial process, it would make this a more equal jurisdiction,” LaConte said. “There would be no real incentive to bring them here, because there is no fast track to a trial date.”
Defense attorney Brian Huelsmann of HeplerBroom agreed, saying that when out of state cases remain in Madison County, a larger number of trial settings are created as a result.
“That is where it all stems,” he said. “If the cases are not getting dismissed on forum, they get trial settings.”
“That has been the issue for a long time,” he added.
Read more in our daily News Update...