Law Commons^™

Overlooking Tort Claimants' Best Interests: Non-Debtor Releases In Asbestos Bankruptcies , Joshua M. Silverstein

Faculty Scholarship

The asbestos crisis has spawned the development of extraordinary new remedies. One of the most dramatic and controversial is known as a "non-debtor release," a bankruptcy order extinguishing claims against a party who has not itself filed for bankruptcy. Also known as a "third-party release," this form of relief first found acceptance in early asbestos insolvencies. Since that time, Congress has passed a statute—§ 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code—that expressly authorizes non-debtor releases in asbestos reorganizations. Powerful remedies are subject to abuse, and third-party releases are no exception. In this article, I argue that bankruptcy courts and litigants have overlooked …