Published this week, the Fall 2016 issue of DRI’s “In-House Defense Quarterly” magazine features an article I penned for them: “Asbestos Litigation Best Practices and Statistics”.

I wrote it with an in-house counsel audience in mind. I’m not a lawyer, but I shared my vantage point of having dealt with the realities of asbestos litigation on a daily basis, both in my previous life as an insurance company executive and in the course of my work now — consulting with defendant companies.

In my experience, the defendant companies that are surviving best in the tort system are:

• Utilizing data to their advantage
• Preparing for both litigation and settlement
• Embracing and driving innovation in the management of this most intractable of torts.

I cover all three topics in the article. Along the way, I discuss these topics and more:

• KCIC’s latest asbestos litigation data pulled from our “Asbestos Litigation: 2016 Mid-Year Review” and our “Asbestos Litigation: 2015 Year in Review”
• How embracing technology can help get your claims, defense history, and insurance coverage, in order.
• Why a combined settlement and defense strategy often seems to work best.
• Legal developments such as the Garlock decision, as well as transactions that have enabled Berkshire Hathaway to amass the largest concentration asbestos-related liabilities in the industry and in history.
• How technology can assist defense counsel in taking more targeted depositions — facilitating questioning that establishes prima facie evidence for the potential of a bankruptcy trust claim and additional shares in the litigation.
• How defendant companies are negotiating inventory and long-term settlement arrangements more often.

KCIC is a DRI corporate member and frequent attendee of DRI’s annual Asbestos Medicine Seminar. KCIC will be at the 2016 seminar, which will be held Nov. 10-11 in New Orleans.