Justice Department officials are protesting a bankruptcy judge’s recent decision to allow New Jersey manufacturer Duro Dyne National Corp. hire a lawyer fight for a pool of money that would compensate people who were exposed to asbestos but have yet to become ill, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. DOJ lawyers appealed the bankruptcy court ruling on Wednesday, putting the issue before another federal judge for review. They previously warned Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J., that the company-selected candidate to represent future asbestos-exposure claimants might not fight aggressively enough for those people. The candidate, lawyer Lawrence Fitzpatrick, was recommended by attorneys for Duro Dyne, a Hamilton, N.J.,-based manufacturer of sheet metal accessories that filed for bankruptcy in September facing nearly 1,000 personal-injury lawsuits related to asbestos exposure.
