In a setback for business groups, Chief Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Joseph P. Farina Jr. on Monday declared unconstitutional a Florida law provision that retroactively requires asbestos plaintiffs to submit detailed medical histories.
Farina ruled in one asbestos lawsuit that the Republican-sponsored Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act cannot be applied retroactively, despite the law’s explicit requirement, because it forces plaintiffs to “meet a medical threshold that goes above and beyond that which existed” when they filed their lawsuit.
