The law should clearly specify that a person might only sue when he or she is actually sick with an asbestos-related disease. For this purpose, the proposed law provides that a doctor must administer lung testing and diagnose a disease related to asbestos, before a lawsuit may proceed.

The law should apply to all claims that have not yet gone to trial, so that only the truly sick may get their day in court. Tens of thousands of lawsuits have already been filed in Texas courts in which the claimants are not sick.

People who are not yet ill should not have to worry that the time in which a lawsuit must be filed (usually two years from the date of the injury) may run out before they can file their claim. The law would make

sure that the time only begins to run when a person is actually sick.

The law will treat asbestos lawsuits just like any other personal injury lawsuit. The same 2003 state laws for addressing lawsuit abuse will also apply to asbestos claims.

The law will prevent unimpaired claimants from simply converting their asbestos claims into silica claims. Just as in asbestos lawsuits, medical testing and objective criteria will be used to determine whether a claimant has a silica-related disease and may proceed with a lawsuit.