Switching sides
Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press reports that former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer, who assumes the position of President of the American Bar Association in August 2003, is pushing for a Federal limit on asbestos claims. Archer notes that "several great American companies" have gone into bankruptcy in recent years "under the weight" of asbestos claims, many of which are currently brought by people who have no disease relating to asbestos.
Archer is currently a partner in (indeed, the CEO of) Dickinson Wright, one of Michigan's powerhouse firms. It is ironic that, before he was mayor, before he was a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Archer was a name partner in another influential firm, Charfoos & Christensen, a plaintiff's litigation firm. Charfoos, Christensen & Archer, as it was then known, was one of the firms pursuing major class action tort claims against a number of manufacturers for drug and toxic exposure cases -- not in the area of asbestos, but relating to DES, Bendectine, and toxic shock claims against tampon manufacturers. In more recent years, C&C has been a major force in the breast implant cases threatening the viability of Dow Corning and Dow Chemical. In addition, it has always been very active in litigation against the medical profession.
When he was a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Archer routinely ruled in favor of plaintiffs and claimants as a matter of course, making a major contribution to the then-existing liberal climate in the Michigan appellate courts.
Now that he is being paid several hundred thousand dollars a year on the other side, Archer finds that abusive class action litigation is a threat to American industry. But he is about 15-20 years too late when it comes to asbestos. Many great manufacturing companies went under years ago under the weight of those claims. Archer's voice was not heard then.
7:45:46 AM 
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