Dow Corning deal approved: earlier payment to implant claimants seen as key to deal. (silicone breast implants)

Business Insurance, July, 1998 by Wojcik, Joanne

BAY CITY, Mich. - Dow Corning Corp. and lawyers representing breast implant claimants have agreed to accept a $3.2 billion settlement negotiated by a federal mediator. The agreement, announced last Wednesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Spector in Bay City, Mich., is $200 million more than Dow Corning had offered in February but $600 million less than claimants had sought.

Many of the payments, however, will be made sooner under the new settlement proposal, allowing women who seek "closure" to move on with their lives, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers said. "More of the payments will be front-loaded, or we wouldn't have accepted the deal," said Elizabeth Joan Cabraser, a partner with Lieff, Cabraser & Heimann in San Francisco. Still, the present-day cash value of...

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