Due to the mass character of asbestos lawsuits since 1960s in the USA, the legislation in this sphere has significantly developed, and each state has its own rules for resolving the issues related with asbestos exposure. The country still hasn’t got unite national law system for them, and adopting legal rules was put upon the responsibility of separate states. The asbestos law must regulate two major types of issues: safety claims and issues related to the victims of asbestos exposure. The first category provides control of the safety measures used by employers to protect their employees from harmful asbestos exposure. And the second one deals with the consequences of occupational and environmental contact with asbestos.
To decrease the number of claims in the courts the states create their own asbestos laws. The majority of these legislative proposals is initiated by the growing number of suits filed from uninjured demandant. And the main concern here is that all those cases will influence on the amount of compensation for a victims of asbestos exposure experiencing severe conditions such as lung cancer. People who mostly require the bigger compensation will not be able to get it due to the financial depletion of the responsible companies. The states mostly have the same legislation for resolving these issues, and the general purpose is providing safety to a society and defending the human rights.
In California the major focus of asbestos legislation is focused on safety. There are strict laws for limiting the amount of asbestos in the environment for safe measures. Employers are obliged to perform safety measures for minimizing the asbestos exposure in industries and clearly document any accidents that involve asbestos. All the records are saved for 30 years in order to track the cases of diseases caused by the asbestos exposure. In Pennsylvania the asbestos law is concentrated about the control for correct case management in courts, evaluating of damages, several and successor liability. This state was one of the top five US states for the number of asbestos lawsuits.
New York laws are one of the most precise and versatile in the area of asbestos litigation. The manufacturing of asbestos began here in the middle of 19th century, and since then the legislation has been significantly developed. The most attention is paid to providing safety for the state residents and preventing dangerous exposure in the environment.
Texas is also the region with the big number of asbestos lawsuits, and here the legislation is more aggressive for them. Due to a huge flow of cases there were new asbestos laws aimed at speeding up the process of considering each case in the court. In Florida there were also attempts to reduce the number of lawsuits. In 2005 the Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act was adopted. It obliged claimants to provide clearer evidence in order to get compensation for the asbestos exposure.
In Georgia there is also a mandatory documentation of the fact of asbestos exposure in order to consider a request for compensation. Soon after the acceptance of this asbestos law the number of cases has dropped to a hundred times smaller number.
The regulations are mostly aimed at clearer regulation of the asbestos lawsuits and minimizing the risk of appearance of new cases. They help to resolve cases more correctly, satisfying the demands of claimants and helping defendants to act by the law. It is always a dispute occurring between the parties when there is no strict definition of actions provided by the law. Legislation is evolving slowly, and the progress in asbestos law doesn’t cover all demands. However, it moves for the better.