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Mass Torts
A “tort” is a civil wrong, and a mass torts involve the situation in which (like a class action) the damage also impacts many people in the same way. However, in a mass tort a defective product or dangerous drug or deceptive practice may have dramatically different impacts on different people.
Unlike in the class action situation, where everybody was essentially harmed to the same extent, in a mass tort each individual who was harmed may have sustained dramatically different damages. For example, a defectively manufactured car tire may have ruptured and caused a series of separate auto crashes that killed or seriously injured a dozen people, and injured scores more, and also caused significant property damage as well. But not all the defective tires have yet ruptured and caused crashes, and many such tires are still on the road. The recovery for the person who died or was seriously injured should be far greater than for the person who merely has to replace the defective (but not yet ruptured) tire.
Yet each would be entitled to bring a tort case. A tort is an act omission that causes injury or harm to another, resulting in legal liability for the party that committed the act. Mass tort lawsuits function by grouping many individual tort cases together under the reasoning that this process is more efficient and that each case involves many of the same issues and concerns.
In a mass tort, although each individual plaintiff claims that they were harmed from the same act, the extent to which they were harmed often differs widely from plaintiff to plaintiff. For example, let’s say the mass tort at hand is against a drug manufacturer for selling a dangerous drug that has been known to cause vision problems. While every plaintiff in this mass tort lawsuit is claiming they were harmed through the same act (in this case, by taking a dangerous drug), the extent to which they were harmed varies greatly. Some plaintiffs will have experienced minor vision loss, while others will have become completely blind. Thus, in mass tort litigation, individual plaintiffs are largely treated separately (for purposes of resolving the case and determining damages) but are handled together for purposes of discovering whether or not the product was harmful.
Mass torts tend to advance through the courts as a multidistrict litigation (MDL). Many cases are consolidated in a single Federal court for purposes of discovery. This consolidation enables the suit to move through the court system more expeditiously. By bringing together many different cases, evidence can be shared amongst the entire lawsuit. Unlike class actions, MDL’s require each plaintiff to file a claim.
Mass tort lawsuits can end in a couple of different ways. If the case is settled as a group, then each plaintiff can make a decision about whether to partake in the settlement. Group settlements typically are constructed such that damages are distributed in proportion to the harm each plaintiff faced (so the plaintiff that lost her vision would recover far more than the plaintiff that only needed stronger reading glasses). Plaintiffs choosing not to participate in the settlement, still can take their case to trial.
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