Update: The drywall litigation industry apparently is booming. A friend told me that prior seminars were attended by lots and lots of lawyers, and that the insurance coverage seminar for drywall was especially popular. I’m also getting emails telling me that only 9 seats are left for a June seminar in New Orleans on the topic by the HB Litigation Conferences Group. Tort litigation is probably one of the few industries that tends to increase when there are tough economic times.
___________________________________________________________________ Media stories abound regarding the purported hazards of “Chinese drywall,” and some websites provide links to some of underlying class action complaints.
Now my email inbox is filling up with other signs of the litigation picking up speed.
For one, a conference on the topic is being organized by Harris-Martin, which is a firm that publishes specialized litigation reporters and puts on specialty litigation conferences.
For another, industrial hygiene companies are touting their skills in this area and providing links to various online sources of information on the topic.
So, how far will this all go and what does it mean? I’m sure I do not know all the answers. What I can say with confidence is that the plaintiff’s bar will use this situation to expand their knowledge of and precedents regarding suits against Chinese manufacturers and their distributors here in the US. I’m less sure of what the American distributors will do, but one suspects that they will want to minimize their risk of being the target defendants by working to help bring the actual manufacturers into court in the United States.
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