Thousands of active and retired building trades workers in Michigan are interested in the status of asbestos litigation in our nation.

They won't like the headline "Asbestos quagmire" that appeared in the Jan. 27 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper pointed out that across the U.S., there are 67 asbestos-related bankruptcies, 750,000 claimants, and 8,000 companies involved in litigation accused of making, selling or supplying asbestos-containing materials.

The gist of their two articles was that the nation's courts have been swamped with a new wave of cases brought against companies that are on the periphery of the asbestos market by plaintiffs who are not currently sick due to asbestos-related exposure. Most of the original defendant-companies are in bankruptcy because over the past two decades, courts have found them liable for the exposure and subsequent sickness of workers.

"Plaintiffs' attorneys are turning to companies once considered too small to sue," the Journal reported. "Many of the smaller fry lack resources to defend thousands of lawsuits or pay huge verdicts. But the companies do have one thing in common: plentiful insurance."

The Journal said the court system is so bogged down in asbestos litigation, that one judge in Baltimore used a simple test to determine how a claimant's case would be handled. "Is he sick?" the judge asked a plaintiff's attorney. The response was negative, so the case was put in a pile that would be unearthed only if medical evidence proved that his injuries are incapacitating.

Cases are being handled like a triage room in a hospital after a disaster: judges are putting the cases of people who are the sickest at the top of their docket.

The Journal reports that the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, a trade group, says its 1,300 members are seeing triple the number of claims they had a few years ago. The result: more legal battles between the company-policyholders and the insurance companies.

The bottom line: It can take two or three decades after exposure for symptoms of asbestos exposure to occur. These days, it can also take that long for such a case to be heard before a court.