History
In 1997, a junior associate at Baron & Budd, P.C., a law firm founded in part by Fred Baron accidentally produced to the defense counsel a twenty-page memo titled "Preparing for Your Deposition." Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a tort reform advocate, called the memo a "a startling insight into how asbestos claims are created"; in a Senate Report, Kyl writes that the memo:
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- gives clients detailed instructions how to credibly testify that they worked with particular asbestos products. The memo also instructs clients to assert particular things that will increase the value of their claim, without regard to whether those things are true. The memo even informs clients that a defense attorney will have no way of knowing whether they are lying about their exposure to particular asbestos products.
Clients were also instructed by the memo to deny that they ever saw warning labels on product packages. The memo was so detailed and comprehensive that Eugene Cook, a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, said at the time, "With this document, you could almost go down the street, get a homeless person, spend a couple of hours with him, and he would be prepared to testify."
Read more about this topic: Baron & Budd Asbestos Memo
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—Terri Apter (20th century)