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The NAM joined with the Coalition for Asbestos Justice, Inc., the American Tort Reform Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to accept for review a ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court that compounds the problem of class action certification in general and asbestos litigation in particular. The case involves 1,300 plaintiffs and 25 defendant companies, and our brief argues that the trial court's ruling allowing a mass consolidation of claims deprives the defendants of constitutionally guaranteed due process. The trial court refused to test whether the plaintiffs have issues in common, and even admitted that consolidation would adversely affect the rights of the parties to a fair trial. Defendants did not have right to conduct basic discovery and the court did not give the defendants information on how subsequent phases of the trial would proceed. Allowing mass aggregations of claims in such circumstances invites other plaintiffs, sometimes with no injuries, to jeopardize recoveries by the truly sick, resulting in additional bankruptcies, and leading to greater pressure on solvent attenuated defendants.