In his 20-plus years as speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver has been the trial lawyers’ undisputed best friend in New York government.
He has used his clout both to block any hope of tort reform in the Legislature and to advance the careers of plaintiff-friendly judges.
For much of that time, Silver has also collected a six-figure income from Weitz & Luxenberg — one of New York’s biggest and most aggressive filers of personal-injury lawsuits — without clearly disclosing what he does for that money.
What is clear for the world to see is the damage that alliance has wreaked — as New York was named the nation’s No. 1 “judicial hellhole” on Tuesday by the American Tort Reform Foundation.
Claiming that dubious honor were the city-based courts that handle the ongoing flood of asbestos litigation, decades after use of the material virtually disappeared.
In no other jurisdiction, the foundation said, “is the plaintiffs’ bar more brazenly favored by the judges presiding over (asbestos) litigation than it is in New York City.”
The report puts a national spotlight on New York’s well-earned reputation as a haven for trial lawyers.
“We cannot be ‘open for business’ until we fix our courts,” said Tom Stebbins of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York. “That’s the perception right now: ‘Come to New York, so we can sue you.’ “
A leading expert on asbestos litigation said the “hellhole” designation is “well deserved.”
“Over the last half-dozen years, what has gone on in New York courts . . . strikes me as a national scandal,” said Professor Lester Brickman of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School.
Building codes nationwide once required the use of asbestos, a common mineral that was prized for its flame-retardant properties. But that stopped when studies showed that miners, factory workers and others exposed to loose fibers were at risk of mesothelioma, a particularly deadly form of cancer, and other diseases.
Forty years later, most of the original manufacturers are long gone, and new diagnoses of mesothelioma are leveling off at a few thousand per year.
Still, the litigation is going strong, driven increasingly by claims in which the link to asbestos is far from clear. Long Island Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, for instance, filed suit blaming her lung cancer on asbestos that her father brought home from work in his clothes — while acknowledging that she has also been a pack-a-day smoker.
Representing McCarthy, by the way, is Weitz & Luxenberg — which is by far the dominant asbestos litigator in New York, handling 53% of mesothelioma claims and 74% of lung-cancer claims.
Making their work easier and more lucrative are a series of plaintiff-friendly decisions detailed in Wednesday’s report.
Since 1996, for example, New York’s courts had effectively ruled out punitive damages in asbestos cases — reasoning that it made little sense to punish today’s companies for things that happened 30, 40 or 50 years ago, often under entirely different corporate control. But the judge in charge of asbestos litigation, Sherry Klein Heitler, recently ended that moratorium.
New York’s courts have also allowed lawsuits against companies that never made anything with asbestos — on grounds that they should have warned customers against using their products in conjunction with other devices, such as gaskets, that did contain asbestos.
The courts have further failed to corral a form of judicial double-dipping, in which a plaintiff collects a confidential settlement from Company A, then goes after Company B, while claiming never to have been exposed to A’s product.
These and other practices not only subject defendants to unwarranted liability, but also cut into the money and court time available to those plaintiffs who most deserve compensation.
None of these decisions came directly from Silver. But he has stymied any and all attempts to make a fairer and more sensible system.
Plus, he has used his political clout to support the careers of key members of the state’s judiciary — including Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
The speaker also gets to select members of the governor’s Judicial Screening Committee.
And whom did Silver pick for the influential job of deciding which judges get promotions to the Appellate Division First Department, where asbestos cases are filed?
None other than Arthur Luxenberg, managing partner of a firm where Silver is “of counsel,” and which paid him some large share of the $650,000 to $750,000 in legal fees the speaker reported collecting in 2013.
Who’s to blame for New York’s “judicial hellhole” status? You be the judge.
whammond@nydailynews.com
