1.   At the end of the bankruptcy, a trust fund was set up to pay the asbestos claims.

2.   But after Halliburton bought Dresser, a Supreme Court ruling changed the way asbestos claims were handled, unleashing a flood of claims against Halliburton and Dresser.

3.   Geoffrey Hazard, a legal-ethics expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, said a recent futures agreement on asbestos claims will slash litigation costs.

4.   He made his fortune representing unions in court, suing for millions in damages in asbestos claims.

5.   In state and federal courts, more asbestos claims are pending than any other kind of product-liability case.

6.   Insurers have not yet estimated how much they will pay for asbestos claims, which are still coming in.

7.   It would process asbestos claims through a new federal administrative board.

8.   One industry lawyer, Meyer Koplow of New York, had previously worked with Rice to settle thousands of asbestos claims brought by Ness, Motley.

9.   Owens Corning said it will continue its investigation to identify other labs and people who may have been involved with conducting fraudulent tests for filing asbestos claims.

10.   That means asbestos claims are more likely to be settled among a group of lawyers in the U.K.