I had the pleasure of attending the Perrin “Cutting-Edge Issues on Asbestos Litigation” conference in Beverly Hills last week with two of my KCIC colleagues. It was filled with a lot of good information and conversation and even allowed for some fun gossip, since actor Alec Baldwin was staying at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where the conference was being held. 

I was fortunate to speak on the opening panel of the conference: “The Top Emerging Trends in Asbestos Litigation”. I kicked off the panel by presenting some pre-release findings from KCIC’s “Asbestos Litigation: 2016 Year in Review” report.

Among the findings, I highlighted current trends in asbestos filing statistics across the country as well as breakdowns by jurisdiction, disease and plaintiff counsel. Overall, I showed how the industry appears to be getting more concentrated over time, especially for mesothelioma and lung cancer claims as well as claims filed in Madison County, Ill.

My co-panelists discussed other hot topics, such as verdict trends over the past few years. Another interesting observation was that the divide these days in asbestos litigation is less between the defendant and plaintiff sides than between defendant and insurance carrier.

As the conference continued, it was interesting to see that the statistics and trends I shared were referenced by speakers on various other panels. The rest of the conference agenda was filled with interesting dialogue on topics such as:

• Industrial and commercial talc in asbestos litigation

• Jurisdictional updates for various parts of the country such as New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Missouri

• The role of DNA science in asbestos litigation 

Watch for future posts by my colleagues about their takeaways from this latest Perrin conference.