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Outstanding Design Winner National Association of REALTORS
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FAR attends conference

“The subject of Chinese drywall is still evolving,” says FAR Vice President of Law and Policy Randy Schwartz. “At the Chinese Drywall Litigation Conference, scientists, government agencies, lawyers and insurance companies grappled with the far-reaching effects to determine the best course of action, but there are more questions than answers right now. Unfortunately, Realtors® are on the front lines of the Chinese drywall problem because they list and sell properties that could contain the defective material. FAR’s legal department will keep a close eye on legal and scientific changes, and update members about any new developments.”



Drywall problem creates cottage industry for lawyers, construction consultants

ORLANDO, Fla. – June 8, 2009 – Standing in front of a roomful of attorneys, home builders, insurance company representatives and construction consultants, forensic investigator Dan Bridge joked that he keeps a shrine of a piece of drywall in his home.

“Every day I stop by the drywall and say thanks to it,” said Bridge, who works with Rimkus Consulting Group Inc. “I was on the front line of the black mold issue – I did 10,000 investigations – and now, 11 years later, here comes Chinese drywall.” Bridge was one of about 275 people from around the country who attended the first day of a Chinese Drywall Litigation Conference at the JW Marriott hotel in Orlando.

Unknown only a few months ago, the problem of defective Chinese drywall used in thousands of homes has blossomed into a cottage industry for lawyers, construction consultants and others hoping to drum up business around the tainted building material.

“Everybody and their brother are coming out of the woodwork on this issue,” Boca Raton attorney Allison Grant said of the small army of plaintiff and defense attorneys taking on drywall-related cases.

In fact, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation recently held a hearing about whether the drywall cases should be consolidated into a huge class-action suit.

It’s known that the drywall emits gases, and that the gases appear to corrode a variety of metals, including air conditioning coils and jewelry.

During the conference, Lori Streit of Aurora, Ill.-based Unified Engineering Inc., which is conducting lab tests on the drywall for the Florida Department of Health, said that the different types of Chinese drywall show chemical differences in their composition. Early test results from various forms of Chinese-made drywall, including 5/8-inch and greenboard, register levels of the chemical strontium at 2,000 to 3,000 parts per million. That’s 10 times the level found in many samples of U.S.-made drywall.

Still, conference attendees and speakers said that not enough is known about the material and what can be done about it.

“There are still more questions than answers,” Fort Myers attorney Scott Weinstein said during his speech.

AP Logo Copyright © 2009 The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Allison Ross. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For background information on Chinese drywall problem, download FAR’s white paper on the issue on floridarealtors.org: http://www.floridarealtors.org/LegalCenter/HotTopics/index.cfm

  Related Topics: Chinese drywall
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