Defendant Companies Try to Stop Looming Trial ---------------------------------------------- Published September 13, 2002 Companies defending against asbestos claims asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a consolidated trial involving as many as 8,000 plaintiffs and 250 defendant companies, the Los Angeles Times reports. Jury selection is set to begin in Charleston, West Virginia, on Sept. 23 if the Supreme Court chooses not to step into the giant liability claim that one judge described as the "asbestos Gettysburg," the newspaper said. With thousands of injury claims filed against hundreds of companies each year at an accelerating pace, the litigation has bankrupted more than 50 companies, the newspaper said. At least 575,000 asbestos claims have been filed since the 1980s and experts believe the total economic cost from the litigation could be as high as $200 billion, more than the cost created by Hurricane Andrew, all the Superfund clean-up sites combined or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the newspaper said. ------------------------------------------------------------------- LitigationDataSource.com