Mass tort lawsuits help those who have been hurt by the actions of the same group or individual. They hold corporations, drug companies, and employers responsible for their actions. Mass torts allow for individual lawsuits to be filed while leveraging the power of a collective.
Most mass torts involve physical injury or physical sickness, so they are technically personal injury cases. Every plaintiff participates in a mass tort and needs to provide information proving that a defendant caused harm to them, often via negligence.
The first step in the mass tort settlement process is filing a claim.
In This Article
What Is a Mass Tort?
How Do You File a Mass Tort Claim?
What Is the Discovery Process?
What Comes After the Discovery Process?
How Are Mass Tort Cases Resolved?
What Are the Advantages of Filing a Mass Tort Lawsuit?
What Is Multidistrict Litigation?
What Kinds of Damages Are Awarded in Mass Torts?
How Do Mass Tort Damages Get Determined?
Does Each Mass Tort Plaintiff Get the Same Amount of Compensation?
How Much Do Mass Tort Lawyers Cost?
What Is a Mass Tort?
Mass torts are omissions or acts that injure or harm many people. Mass torts aren’t single cases. They are, instead, collections of individual lawsuits which accuse the same defendants of the same things. Mass torts are often tried in multidistrict litigation.
Mass torts seek financial recoveries in circumstances where classes can’t be certified for class action lawsuits and in circumstances where it’s advantageous to file a mass tort instead of a class action.
How Do You File a Mass Tort Claim?
The beginning of a mass tort lawsuit is when a plaintiff files a claim alleging that a defendant harmed them. The process for mass tort claims follows the civil litigation process.
The mass torts lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers will help the plaintiff generate a complaint, collect evidence, and file a lawsuit. While doing this, the lawyer may look for other people who have been harmed in a similar manner to make the mass tort claim stronger.
What Is the Discovery Process?
The discovery process comes after filing a mass tort claim. This pre-trial phase involves the plaintiffs and the plaintiffs’ lawyers collecting evidence for the mass tort case. This usually involves interviewing the plaintiff, healthcare providers, witnesses, scientists, and others. The plaintiffs and their lawyers will work together here to strengthen their case as much as they can.
What Comes After the Discovery Process?
During the next phase, known as the motion practice, plaintiffs, defendants, and their lawyers present evidence and make claims. The case of the plaintiffs is handled collectively. The lawyers representing both parties often agree to an out-of-court settlement during this phase.
The plaintiffs and their lawyers may also ask the judge to do specific things. The judge will rule based on claims and evidence, and they may send the case to a jury trial. When cases go to court, every individual plaintiff and their lawyer will have an individual trial.
How Are Mass Tort Cases Resolved?
Once mass tort cases go to trial, they may still settle out of court during the middle of the trial. Otherwise, they will be resolved by a court judgment. When plaintiffs win their case, they are awarded financial compensation for their damages. These cases involve numerous plaintiffs, so compensation is based on the circumstances of each individual case.
What Are the Advantages of Filing a Mass Tort Lawsuit?
Mass tort lawsuits allow individuals who have been harmed by the same group or person to harness the power of a collective. They can help individuals fight against powerful groups and can create strong, efficient cases.
Mass tort lawsuits let individuals gather strength in numbers during negotiations, giving them more leverage than they would have if they simply filed an individual claim. A thousand people being hurt in the same way by the same company can make a more convincing case than a single person filing a single lawsuit.
However, unlike in class action lawsuits, mass tort plaintiffs are still treated as individuals, which may lead to larger settlements when one plaintiff has suffered significantly more damages than another.
Mass tort cases are more efficient for courts, which can handle pre-trial mass tort phases more efficiently than numerous individual lawsuits. This makes the process of reaching a settlement go by more quickly.
Plaintiffs in mass tort cases benefit from the shared discovery, evidence, details, testimonies, etc., making their cases that much stronger.
What Is Multidistrict Litigation?
Because mass tort cases involve multiple people who have been harmed in a similar way by the same person or group, they often involve people in many different states. For the sake of efficiency, mass tort cases are often consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL), where all the cases are handled in the same court.
What Kinds of Damages Are Awarded in Mass Torts?
Successful mass tort plaintiffs are awarded financial compensation for damages. This compensates them for economic and non-economic losses that they have incurred because of the negligence or actions of the defendant. They can be compensated for medical bills, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, lost quality of life, and more.
How Do Mass Tort Damages Get Determined?
Every individual mass tort plaintiff’s damages get determined based on their individual losses and case. The compensation they receive gets based on numerous factors, including general damages and special damages.
Special damages are objective damages like medical bills, property damage, and litigation costs. General damages are subjective damages, such as emotional distress, trauma, etc.
Does Each Mass Tort Plaintiff Get the Same Amount of Compensation?
No. Each individual mass tort plaintiff is compensated based on their individual case. Experienced personal injury lawyers like those at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can assist plaintiffs in determining how much compensation they may receive in a mass tort lawsuit.
How Much Do Mass Tort Lawyers Cost?
The experienced mass tort lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers represent mass tort clients on a contingency fee basis, meaning we don’t charge a fee unless and until we obtain financial compensation for you.
The only fee we charge is a portion of any compensation we obtain for you, meaning you don’t get charged a fee if we don’t win your case.
