When claims of harms rise, more corporations are diving into bankruptcy

They were a tortured part of the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis. They have become a painful aspect of the push to hold nursing home owners and operators accountable for the shambolic response to the coronavirus pandemic.

And they soon may be an obstacle to military veterans’ attempts to get justice for defective devices that were supposed to protect their hearing.

Bankruptcy courts, the evidence increasingly shows, are at risk of warping their congressional mandate to help struggling enterprises sort out complex business operations. They are instead offering a legal haven to big corporations zealously protecting their profits from civil claims they harmed others.