BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- A mediation process will be used to dispatch the AK Steel workers' asbestos lawsuit cases more quickly.
Judge Michael Sage of Butler County Common Pleas Court filed an order Tuesdayestablishing an "alternative dispute resolution" process and appointing John Paul Jones as appointing attorney. He will organize and handle the mediation process.
The lawsuit, filed two years ago, alleges that the plaintiffs have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases. It involves 990 current and former AK Steel employees and names as defendants 50 asbestos manufacturers whose products were used at the Middletown plant.
AK Steel is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer recently removed visiting Butler County Judge George Elliott from the case, saying he did not think Judge Elliott could handle the cases in a timely fashion. Judge Elliott retired as a Butler County common pleas judge in 1996.
Judge Sage was temporarily assigned to the case.
It would take more than 37 years to try the 990 cases individually, Judge Sage said in his order. The dispute resolution process is designed to resolve the cases without a trial or to narrow the issues that will be tried.
