§ 90.051.Definitions

Three definitions supporting the 2015 trust disclosure regime.

"Asbestos or silica trust" means a claims facility, claims agent, qualified settlement fund, or other entity that: is created under 11 U.S.C. Section 524(g) or another applicable law for the benefit of creditors of a bankrupt person; is formed to compensate claimants for asbestos- or silica-related injuries; and is in existence on the date trial is set to commence.

Section 524(g) is the channelling injunction provision, the mechanism by which a reorganising asbestos defendant directs all present and future claims to a trust and emerges free of them.

The third condition times the obligation to trial. A trust that has wound up before trial is not one the claimant must claim against.

"Trust claim" is any filing with or claim against such a trust seeking compensation for the exposed person's injury.

"Trust claim material" is documentation filed as part of or in connection with a trust claim, including documentation submitted to demonstrate exposure, the existence of an injury, or the validity of the claim, and the claim forms and other materials the trust requires.

That definition is what the disclosure and evidence sections operate on. The exposure documentation submitted to a trust identifies which products and which employers the claimant attributes the disease to — precisely what a tort defendant wants to compare against what is alleged in court.