Bill Seitz, a partner in Taft's litigation department and a Republican state senator, has been instrumental  over the past four years in the Ohio General Assembly in helping to reform Ohio's tort law system. One part of that work has addressed the exploding numbers of asbestos-related cases that have been clogging the state's court system.
 
Last week, Seitz introduced a new bill that will prevent double-dipping by plaintiffs who file lawsuits in state courts while bringing  the same claims against trusts set up by bankruptcy courts. Read more about this bill in this Cincinnati Business Courier article.
 
The new bill follows on the heels of an October Ohio Supreme Court ruling upholding a 2004 law governing asbestos lawsuits that was also spearheaded by Seitz. That law was designed to eliminate a backlog of tens of  thousands of asbestos claims jamming Ohio courts. It requires plaintiffs to show they are suffering from an actual medical injury, not  merely having just been exposed  to asbestos only. Since that ruling, 31,000 claims have been taken off the docket in Cuyahoga County alone. Read more about the impact of this ruling.