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• In This Asbestos Case, Plaintiffs May Get Burned 

Asbestos defendants often say they're the victims of a multibillion-dollar shakedown. A new case could prove they're right.

Asbestos defendants have complained for years that they are the victims of a multibillion-dollar shakedown. Now a Mississippi lawsuit makes that claim explicit: A Georgia company that paid out some $95 million in asbestos settlements has accused doctors, testing companies and as-yet unnamed plaintiff lawyers of participating in a racketeering scheme to gin up phony cases.

It's not the first time an asbestos defendant has accused the other side of fraud. . . .

Potential defendants include some of the most prominent names in the plaintiffs' bar, such as Baron & Budd; Motley Rice; Reaud, Morgan & Quinn and Brent Coon. Many are big supporters of the Democratic party and some participated in the multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement, raising the political stakes if the case proceeds.

The Mississippi lawsuit--two of them, actually, filed in state and federal court--names physicians including Dr. Jay T. Segarra, an Ocean Springs, Miss., radiologist who reportedly reviewed tens of thousands of X-rays over the years for evidence of asbestos injury. . . .

The Mississippi cases face an uphill fight, as lawyers and physicians have frequently cited confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege to refuse to turn over documents. But defendants have cracked the wall. An Ohio judge in 2007 booted the Novato, Calif., law firm of Brayton Purcell from an asbestos case after defendant Lorillard Tobacco Co. obtained e-mails and other documents suggesting the lawyers had made up information about their client.

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