House Committee Turns Spotlight on Law Firms Filing Silica Claims

On February 17, 2006, the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, which last fall initiated a probe of thousands of suspect silica-related lawsuits, expanded its investigation to include 13 plaintiffs' firms in Texas and Mississippi which have filed questionable suits. Previously, the Committee had focused its attention on doctors who had diagnosed silicosis in claimants.

Committee chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R - Texas) and Ed Whitfield (R - Kentucky), head of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, have asked the law firms to provide detailed case information and medical records related to the suits they have filed. Legislators are particularly concerned with the use of mobile "screeners" who transport x-ray equipment from one site to another to test potential plaintiffs. "We are concerned that there appears to be no meaningful doctor-patient relationship established by the screening process at issue," states the Committee's letter to the 13 law firms.

The congressional inquiry was instigated after U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack (SD- Texas), overseeing the Silicosis Multi-District Litigation case, held a Daubert hearing and issued a 249-page decision in June 2005 in which she wrote that many silicosis cases were "manufactured for money."

Judge Jack' s June 2005 decision questioned the validity of nearly 10,000 lawsuits involving the lung disease, and sent the cases back to various state courts. She was particularly concerned with the "assembly-line" approach being used by attorneys, doctors and X-ray screeners. Judge Jack found that 99% of the cases had been diagnosed by the same six doctors via a system of mass screening. It was also determined that 65% of the cases involved plaintiffs who had previously filed asbestos-related suits. Medical experts consider it highly unusual for an individual to develop both asbestos and silica-related conditions. Following up on these concerns, the Committee has also subpoenaed three doctors whose diagnoses had supported many of the 10,000 suits. On March 8, 2006, Drs. James Ballard, Ray Harron and Andrew Harron appeared before the Committee and declined to testify, each invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Judge Jack's decision sent all but one of the 10,000 cases back to state courts and tossed out approximately 100 Texas cases over which she felt she had jurisdiction. Subsequently, in December 2005, a Mississippi judge dismissed more than 4,000 silicosis-related cases that Judge Jack had remanded to the Mississippi state courts.

The House Committee has also written to state health departments in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas, requesting information regarding state regulations related to diagnostic testing. As yet, the Committee has not published findings from its inquiry and is continuing its fact-finding prior to deciding whether to hold more hearings or propose legislation.