Craig Liljestrand Considers How a Personal-Jurisdiction Defense Can Put an End to Forum Shopping by Plaintiffs' Counsel in Asbestos Claims

Hinshaw partner Craig Liljestrand, a complex mass tort and product liability attorney, authored an article titled, "Can Asbestos Ever Be Mitigated From Illinois Courts?" Published by the Illinois State Bar Association's Illinois Bar Journal, Liljestrand's article discusses a decades-long trend of plaintiffs' counsel choosing Illinois as a forum to litigate toxic tort asbestos cases, due to what they believe are plaintiff-friendly exposure laws and sympathetic juries in certain venues.

Liljestrand explains the practice of plaintiffs' counsel bringing many out-of-state defendants into Illinois asbestos litigation "raises more than a few eyebrows" from defense counsel who are familiar with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 137(a). He then reviews several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that can provide defense counsel with precedent for raising personal jurisdiction issues in asbestos cases.

Read the full article (PDF)

"Can Asbestos Ever Be Mitigated From Illinois Courts? Illuminating asbestos' pathway out of the Land of Lincoln." was published in the March 2020 edition of the ISBA's Illinois Bar Journal.