• By   • Ashby Jones  asbestosOnce upon a time, asbestos was
practically everywhere. Because the material (pictured) causes
devastating forms of cancer and lung disease, huge product-
liability litigation sprung up. That led to huge settlements,
which led to the establishment of huge trusts, created to assure
payment to millions of current and future claimants.  Some $20
billion now resides in these 40 or so trusts, set up by Johns
Manville Corp., Owens Corning and other former makers and
sellers of asbestos. But who’s overseeing the trusts? Is the
money getting spent properly? In short, are the trusts working
as designed?  The WSJ’s Nathan Koppel takes a look at the topic
in Thursday’s Law Journal column.  In recent years, Koppel
writes, trusts have come under fire from insurance companies and
legal scholars contending that they lack transparency, pay
questionable claims and unfairly enrich plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“The real concern,” says Steven Todd Brown, a professor at
University at Buffalo Law School, who h