Rhode Island disease?
FTH contributor and Heartland Senior Fellow, Maureen Martin, has been busy lately tackling the growing lead paint controversy. If you haven't been keeping up with this one, it's a doozy. A jury in Rhode Island found the state's paint manufacturers liable for the cost of removing lead paint from something like 200,000 state owned buildings and private residences. They're going to hold paint companies responsible even though they haven't sold lead paint since it was outlawed (decades ago) and no "victim" has even alleged they were poisoned by existing lead based paint.
Moreover, the state, rather than presenting the case itself, outsourced the suit to Motley Rice, a high-power law firm that got rich from tobacco settlements. Check out Martin’s op-ed in Monday’s Star Ledger. Also of interest might be the New York Times coverage (subscription only).