I had a chance to attend the Perrin National Asbestos Litigation Conference in San Francisco for two days. Lawyers from the plaintiff and defense bar, as well as insurers and judges, were in attendance. It was yet another step forward and away from that shut-in feeling we all had due to COVID precautions. Seeing everyone was invigorating, to say the least, as I have attended this conference for the last five years and forged many enduring relationships in the process. There, I had an opportunity to speak on the updates in Chicago and developments in the law for asbestos litigation in Illinois.
I addressed the recent change allowing for plaintiffs to collect prejudgment interest on any verdicts. That sounds like a mouthful. To put it simply, from the day a case is filed in court until the day a jury renders a verdict, the plaintiff can now collect 6 percent interest on the total verdict for the time it took the case to run through the court system. Most states already had this provision, so in my view, this is a great improvement in the law, specifically for asbestos victims. This provision gently nudges a case toward settlement rather than a continuation.
The conference was well-attended and nicely presented. Lynssey Perrin and her team always do an excellent job of getting great speakers and covering intriguing topics