A Georgia-Pacific LLC unit is blaming “abuses in the tort system” for the skyrocketing number of lawsuits that forced it to file for chapter 11 protection on Thursday, Texas Lawyer reported today. Bestwall LLC, which was created in July to manage Georgia-Pacific’s asbestos docket, is the latest firm to file for bankruptcy due to rising numbers of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who claim they or their family members got mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in their products. But, in a refrain popular among tort reformers, Bestwall alleges that plaintiffs lawyers aren’t being truthful about all the products their clients were exposed to that might have contained asbestos. “The breadth and magnitude of the asbestos litigation pending against Bestwall are wildly disproportionate to any legal liability Bestwall could possibly have,” wrote Garland Cassada, an attorney for Bestwall, in an information brief filed in bankruptcy court. Cassada, of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, is working alongside Bestwall’s lead bankruptcy counsel, Greg Gordon, a partner in Jones Day’s Dallas office. “The massive increase in the number of claims against, and the size of the plaintiffs’ settlement demands to, Bestwall have been driven by various interrelated shortcomings of and abuses in the tort system.”
