John Brieden III, former American Legion commander and county judge in Texas, recently wrote an op-ed making the case for the Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency (FACT) Act, which could face a U.S. House vote this week.
Brieden outlined the position among veterans affected by asbestos exposure and examined the financial motives behind the movement opposing the legislation. Some groups challenge the bill, saying that attorney fraud pervades fund dispersal.
Vets currently receiving benefits are given a fraction of what victims did in previous years, quite possibly due to some measure of deception.
“We support the FACT Act because we know that fraud and abuse -- not justice -- are driving the asbestos funds’ premature depletion,” Brieden said. “Secrecy in the asbestos legal system makes it hard to know the full extent of this fraud, but there is ample evidence the funds, which Congress authorized in 1994, are being drained far too quickly.”
Neutral industry experts, including the GAO and the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, concur with the theory that trusts are vulnerable to temptation.
“The lawyers who usher veterans and other victims through the process of accessing awards from asbestos trust funds are like kids in a candy store: it’s almost impossible for them to resist taking an extra lick or bite for themselves,” Brieden said.
Concluding that the optimum way to protect both asbestos victims and the funds is through the FACT Act, Brieden stated that for honest stakeholders, transparency should cause no fear.
“True liberty is not possible under a government-sanctioned cloak of secrecy,” he said.
The legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), would require asbestos bankruptcy trusts to release information on those seeking compensation due to asbestos exposure in quarterly reports, including detailed information regarding the receipt and disposition of claims for asbestos-related injuries, in an effort to target fraudulent claims.
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