On June 30, 2005, the earth shifted in the silica litigation. On that day, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, the judge overseeing pretrial discovery in the silica product liability litigation, recommended that nearly 10,000 diagnoses of silicosis be thrown out as scientifically unreliable and legally suspect. In re Silica Products Liab. Litig., 398 F.Supp.2d 563 (S.D. Tex. 2005). State legislatures around the country took notice of the judge’s findings, and now, a year and a half later, silica litigation appears to be on the wane, with cases being dismissed en masse in several jurisdictions.
EARLIER EXPLOSION OF CLAIMS
