Amici Group: Adoption of Punitive Damages in NYC Asbestos Docket Will ‘Threaten to Undo the Entire CMO’

NEW YORK –– An amici group opposing recent efforts to end the deferral on punitive damages in New York City asbestos litigation contends allowing punitive damages would “frustrate settlements, slow the processing of cases, lengthen trials [and] delay recoveries.”

In an Oct. 31 brief filed in the New York Supreme Court for New York County, a number of companies, including the Coalition for Litigation Justice and the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, argue that abandoning a Case Management Order that has governed the city’s asbestos docket for nearly 20 years would “upset the apple cart.”

In March, the plaintiffs …