Most of these actions aren't lawsuits per se, but rather claims made on trust funds set up by asbestos manufacturers as part of Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings. So the money's already there and if one has been afflicted by mesothelioma and can claim *any* exposure to asbestos in the past, the fund usually pays out a million or two to the claimant and his lawyer. Not quite ambulance-chasing, but close. Late night TV is full of ads for this sort of thing.
A similar thing is going on for Roundup herbicide and non-Hodgkins lymphoma from a fund set up by Montsanto, whose patent on glyphosate herbicide has long since run out. Glyphosate is still widely used in agriculture. --Chuck