Announcements

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy Update

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
August 12, 2020


In recognition of the continuing hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective August 17, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following:

The Trust continues its temporary suspension of any requirement that a document submitted to the Trust be notarized. Documents may be submitted to the Trust without notarization as provided below. Also, the Trust continues its temporary suspension of any requirement that a document be witnessed by more than one person or by a person unrelated to the signatory.  Documents may be witnessed by one person who may be a family member.

Provided the claimant’s law firm has entered an electronic filer agreement with the Trust and CRMC, the Trust will continue to accept documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program. Claimants’ law firms should coordinate submission of documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable esignature program with CRMC.

Deadlines imposed by the TDP or Trust policies or procedures are extended through September 30, 2020. This is an extension of the deadlines, not a tolling of the deadlines. By notice dated March 27, 2020 the Trust tolled deadlines imposed by the TDP or Trust policies or procedures from March 23, 2020, for 90 days, to June 21, 2020. On June 21, 2020, the tolling ended, and the tolled times resumed running. If a time deadline occurs sometime between June 21, 2020 and September 30, 2020, the deadline is extended until September 30, 2020. The Trust will assess whether to further extend the deadlines before September 30, 2020 and will give at least five business days’ notice if the Trust determines to further extend the deadlines.

Without a further extension, the provisions of this Notice will expire on September 30, 2020. Except for deadlines extended by this Notice, absent further notice from the Trust, on September 30, 2020, the Trust will revert to its prior policies including requiring original signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

CRMC Enhancements 7/27/2020

CRMC is pleased to announce the implementation of significant enhancements to eClaims this past weekend. We have been working through these for some time and are excited to share them with you.

Deficiency Listing: This is a new page off the “Search” tab labeled “Deficiency Listing”.   Law firm users can locate specific deficiencies by Trust. We added selection criteria we thought was most useful such as: Trust, deficiency type, deficiency code, claim status, and cat/level. Once you enter your criteria and the list of claims returns, you may download that list by selecting that option at the bottom of the page.  A detailed explanation of how to use this page is included in the updated User Guide on page 42.  We posted a list of Trust specific deficiencies to each Trust’s Documents tab for your reference.

Deficiency Tab: This is a new claim specific tab which displays any deficiencies currently pending on a claim. The deficiencies are broken into the following sections: POC Data, POC Required Documents, Exposure, and Medical.  Each section has a link in its top right corner that will take you to further information. The user guide details the specifics for using the tab beginning on page 49.

Action Links: We replaced the prior one-character action links such as C for CDT to a list view. Hover your mouse over the green Actions box and a list of pages displays. Just scroll down to the page you would like to go to. See Figure 45 in the updated manual for additional information.

MV CDT: A change was made to the CDT Summary page to show if the claim meets the “medical” criteria. If the expected level is displayed as an L7 and the CDT level is an L7 that means the claim met the medical criteria. To see if there are non-medical deficiencies click on the explanation of level. If there is an issue with one of the following requirements it will show as a No on that page: SOE, SOL, Latency, exposure to Manville asbestos, etc.

Once you have had a chance to use these new features, please reach out if you have questions or would like us to consider adding additional features to a page. We hope you find these useful in tracking the status of claims within eClaims.

Manville: Temporary Policy Update Extension – COVID 2019

Temporary Policy Changes Regarding (a) Release Signatures and (b) Enforcement of Time Limitations

The Trustees of the Manville Trust are aware that these are difficult and unusual times.  Some filers may not be able to meet the requirements for certain Trust claims due to illness, quarantine or shelter in place orders. Therefore, the Trust has extended the prior deadline from July 22, 2020 until September 15, 2020. The following temporary policies will be in place.

  • For releases generated prior to the changes on March 26, 2020, a release document may be signed by the Injured Party or Personal Representative (when the injured party is deceased) and one witness who may be related by blood or marriage.

  • The timeframe for responding to notices of offer, deficiency, deactivation, and withdrawal has been tolled.

  • The statute of limitations period for filing a claim is tolled.

These policy changes are the result of the current pandemic crisis and are designed to provide temporary measures to assure claimants that claims handling will continue during the crisis.

Permanent Policy Changes Regarding Electronic Signatures:

  • The Trust will accept any document requiring a signature that has been signed utilizing DocuSign or other electronic signature software provided the law firm has an electronic filer agreement on file with CRMC.

  • The Trust added language to the end of the release on March 26, 2020 so the release need not be notarized or witnessed.

Manville: MV Level 2 Release Language

At the request of several counsel, a change has been made to the Level 2 release. Your client will have the option to accept the L2 offer at 4.3% which is eligible for a supplemental payment should one be made or the L1 $600 Cash Discount Payment. They should initial their selection and sign the release.

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy Update

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
June 24, 2020


In recognition of the hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective June 21, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following (which replaces and supersedes the Trust’s Notice dated March 27, 2020):

The Trust continues its temporary suspension of any requirement that a document submitted to the Trust be notarized. Documents may be submitted to the Trust without notarization as provided below. The Trust continues its temporary suspension of any requirement that a document be witnessed by more than one person or by a person unrelated to the signatory. Documents may be witnessed by one person who may be a family member.

Provided the claimant’s law firm has entered an electronic filer agreement with the Trust and CRMC, the Trust will continue to accept documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program. Claimants’ law firms should coordinate submission of documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program with CRMC.

Deadlines imposed by the TDP, Trust policy or procedures are extended through August 17, 2020. This is an extension of the deadlines, not a tolling of the deadlines. By notice dated March 27, 2020 the Trust tolled deadlines imposed by the TDP, Trust policy or procedures from March 23, 2020, for 90 days, to June 21, 2020. On June 21, 2020, the tolling will end and the tolled times will resume to run. If a time deadline occurs sometime between June 21, 2020 and August 17, 2020, the deadline is extended until August 17, 2020. The Trust will assess whether to further extend the deadlines before August 17, 2020 and will give at least five business days’ notice if the Trust determines to further extend the deadlines.

Without a further extension, the provisions of this Notice will expire on August 17, 2020. Except for the deadlines extended by this Notice, absent further notice from the Trust, on August 17, 2020, the Trust will revert to its prior policies including requiring original signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

Manville: Manville Trust 4.3% pro rata share

With the recent change in the Manville Trust Pro Rata share, the pro rata payment amount for a Level 2 claim is $516, less than a Level 1 Cash Discount Payment of $600. Therefore, the Trustees will offer the option of accepting the Level 2 value, which is eligible for a supplemental payment should one be paid, or accepting the Level 1 $600 cash discount payment. For electronic filers you will see the following options on the Offer Status Page:

                ACC – Offer Accepted as L2 $516 eligible for supplemental payment

                AL1 – Offer Accepted as L1 $600 cash discount payment

The proper release will generate once an option is selected. If you file on paper with CRMC, a representative will contact you prior to the issuance of an offer for your selection so the proper offer and release documents are sent.

CET: COVID-19 Policy

Statute of Limitation. At this time, the Trust will continue to enforce deadlines for the filing of claims set forth in Section 7.1(a)(2) of the TDP. However, in recognition of the inability of many claimants to file their claim on a timely basis as a result of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust will extend the applicable limitation period for 90 days for claims whose limitation period expires during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020.

Offers. The Trust recognizes the inability of many claimants, as a result of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, to respond to offers in the time frame required. As such, where the time to respond to an offer expires during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020, the Trust will extend the time for 90 days.

Affidavit. In light of current guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust will accept the authentication of affidavits through DocuSign or similar Trust authorized electronic signature program during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020, provided that documentation of the electronic signature history and a certificate from the electronic signature program is submitted with the affidavit. The Trust reserves the right to request supplemental documentation at a later date.

Releases. In light of current guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trustees recognize that some claimants may not have access to a notary or to two unrelated witnesses for the authentication of releases. The Trust may accept the signature of one witness (related or unrelated) as reliable authentication of a release if the release was executed and submitted to the Trust during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020. The Trust will also accept releases executed using DocuSign or similar Trust authorized electronic signature program. If the claimant utilizes DocuSign or a similar Trust authorized electronic signature program, documentation of the electronic signature history and a certificate from the electronic signature program must be provided with the release. The Trust reserves the right to request supplemental documentation at a later date.

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
March 27, 2020

In recognition of the hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective March 27, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following:

The Trust temporarily suspends any requirement that a document submitted to the Trust be notarized. Documents may be submitted to the Trust without notarization as provided below. The Trust temporarily suspends any requirement that a document be witnessed by more than one person or by a person unrelated to the signatory. Documents may be witnessed by one person who may be a family member.

Provided the claimant’s law firm has entered an electronic filer agreement with the Trust and CRMC, the Trust will accept documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program. Claimants’ law firms should coordinate submission of documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program with CRMC.

Deadlines imposed by the TDP, Trust policy or procedures are tolled for 90 days from March 23, 2020, subject to further extension by notice from the Trust. The Trust will assess whether to extend the tolled time period before the end of the 90 days.

These provisions will apply until further notice from the Trust. The Trust may prospectively revert to its prior policies and may subsequently require that the original signatures be obtained for documents submitted with electronic signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF