When companies that made or sold asbestos products ran out of money to cover the harm they caused, many filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and set up trusts to compensate people later. These are the asbestos bankruptcy trusts, and this category explains how they work and how you file with them.
A trust created under Section 524(g) of the bankruptcy code, like the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, pays claims from a fixed pool of money set aside for current and future victims. Because that pool has to last, most trusts don't pay a claim in full. Instead, a Claims Matrix assigns each disease a Scheduled Value, and a Payment Percentage reduces what's actually paid so the fund isn't exhausted. The rules for all of this live in a document called the Trust Distribution Procedures.
Dozens of these trusts exist, from Garlock and Celotex to Owens-Corning and USG, and a single exposure history can support claims against several at once. Every term below links to a full plain-language definition.
Terms in this category
- 524(g) TrustA 524(g) trust is a special bankruptcy trust that a company overwhelmed by asbestos lawsuits can set up to pa…
- Approved Site ListAn approved site list is a list kept by an asbestos bankruptcy trust of worksites, such as plants, refineries…
- Armstrong World Industries Asbestos PI Settlement TrustThe Armstrong World Industries Asbestos PI Settlement Trust is a court-established fund created to pay curren…
- Asbestos Bankruptcy TrustAn asbestos bankruptcy trust is a fund set up by a company that went bankrupt because of asbestos lawsuits, c…
- Asbestos Trust FundAn asbestos trust fund is a pool of money set aside by a bankrupt asbestos company to pay current and future …
- Bankruptcy TrustA bankruptcy trust is a fund set up when an asbestos company files for bankruptcy, designed to pay current an…
- Bankruptcy Trust ClaimA bankruptcy trust claim is a claim filed against a special fund set up when an asbestos company goes bankrup…
- Bendix Friction Materials TrustThe Bendix Friction Materials Asbestos Personal Injury Trust is a court-supervised fund created to pay people…
- Celotex Asbestos Settlement TrustThe Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust is a court-supervised fund created to pay asbestos injury claims agains…
- Channeling InjunctionA channeling injunction is a court order, issued when an asbestos bankruptcy plan is confirmed, that permanen…
- Chapter 11Chapter 11 is a section of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that allows a financially distressed company to reorganiz…
- Claims MatrixA claims matrix is a schedule, used by an asbestos bankruptcy trust or in a mass settlement, that lists quali…
- Disease LevelA disease level is one of the numbered categories an asbestos bankruptcy trust uses to sort claims by diagnos…
- Exigent Health ClaimAn exigent health claim is a request that an asbestos trust process a claim ahead of its normal order because…
- Expedited ReviewExpedited review is the faster, fixed-value way most asbestos bankruptcy trusts process claims. A claim that …
- FIFO Processing QueueThe FIFO processing queue is the line in which an asbestos bankruptcy trust reviews claims: first in, first o…
- Future Claimants' RepresentativeA Future Claimants' Representative is a person appointed by the bankruptcy court to protect people who have b…
- Garlock Sealing Technologies TrustThe Garlock Sealing Technologies Trust is a bankruptcy-created trust established to pay asbestos personal inj…
- Individual ReviewIndividual review is the slower, evidence-intensive way an asbestos bankruptcy trust can evaluate a claim, lo…
- Kaiser Gypsum TrustThe Kaiser Gypsum Trust is a court-supervised asbestos personal injury settlement trust created in 2021 to pa…
- Manville TrustThe Manville Trust, formally the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, is the trust created in Johns-Man…
- Manville Trust Distribution ProceduresThe Manville Trust Distribution Procedures (TDP) are the formal rules that govern how the Manville Personal I…
- Medical CriteriaMedical criteria are the proof of disease that an asbestos bankruptcy trust requires before it will pay a cla…
- Owens-Corning/Fibreboard TrustThe Owens-Corning/Fibreboard Trust is a court-supervised bankruptcy trust created to pay current and future a…
- Owens-Illinois Asbestos Personal Injury TrustThe Owens-Illinois Asbestos Personal Injury Trust is a court-supervised fund established to pay compensation …
- Payment PercentageThe Payment Percentage is the fraction of a claim's scheduled or liquidated value that an asbestos bankruptcy…
- Pittsburgh Corning Asbestos Settlement TrustThe Pittsburgh Corning Asbestos Settlement Trust is a court-supervised trust created in 2013 to pay current a…
- Proof of ClaimA proof of claim is the form a creditor files in a bankruptcy case to state what the bankrupt company owes it…
- Scheduled ValueA scheduled value is the fixed dollar amount that an asbestos bankruptcy trust assigns to a particular diseas…
- Section 524(g) TrustA Section 524(g) trust is a special bankruptcy trust that a company creates to take over all its asbestos lia…
- Trust Advisory CommitteeA Trust Advisory Committee is a small group, usually made up of asbestos plaintiffs' lawyers, that represents…
- Trust Distribution ProceduresTrust Distribution Procedures, often called TDPs, are the written rules an asbestos bankruptcy trust uses to …
- USG Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement TrustThe USG Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust is a court-supervised compensation fund created by United S…
Terms in this category
Browse the full Lexicon, or talk it through with a member of our litigation team, not a screener, at 833-4-ASBESTOS.