Mass Torts

==What is a tort?==

• a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability
• No liability without fault
• wrongful injury

==Mass torts==

• legal actions that allow a law firm to group together many clients that have been injured by the same corporation

==Difference from class action ==

• a mass tort is individualized, the judge decides if there is more loss the person gets more compensation
• in a class action, the individuals in the group get the same compensation (generalized)

==Elements of tort law==

1. Duty
   • Can be difficult to define, sometimes is written law (e.g, driving), and other times it is common knowledge (reasonable care)
2. Brach if duty
   • wrongdoer fails to comply with what the duty requires (intentional or negligent)
3. causation
   • the plaintiff must prove that his or her injuries and losses were caused by the defendant (e.g, an individual with back problems is injured in a motor vehicle accident)
4. damages
   • monetary compensation for the injuries sustained and value awarded by the court

==Types of liability==

• negligence: car accidents
• Strict: speeding, selling alcohol to a minor
• absolute: owning dangerous animals, using explosives

==Various types of torts==

1. pesticides
   • Roundup
   • Paraquat
2. Pharmaceuticals
   • Elmiron
   • Xarelto
3. Medical devices/ implants
   • Hernia mesh
   • CPAP machine
4. Catastrophic Personal injury
   • Winter Storm Uri
   • Camp Lejeune

Mass accident

• cases that arise from a catastrophic event that injures many people or causes damages to many different owners’ properties

Toxic tort

• actions are geographical confined, the geographic center
• involves something like the spills of a toxic substance that might cause several people to develop illnesses, sometimes over long periods of time

True mass tort

• Requires the new and innovative procedures for the collective treatment of claims that can be found in class actions and multidistrict litigation

==Product liability ==

• one important characteristic of mas torts is they are the most common product liability claims

• most of them are claiming the product is defectively designed (e.g, hernia mesh)

• other claims are that the manufacturers did not provide effective warnings (e.g, roundup)

==Federal and state court==

State court and mass torts: each state has its own set of laws pertaining to mass torts based on how they interpret the obligations we have as members of society

Federal courts and mass courts: there are federal courts in every state, but there is no federal tort law. The plaintiffs can borrow the state law that benefits them more.

==Settlement==

How are plaintiffs compensated in mass tort claims?

• attorney fees, legal fees, etc
• subrogation liens: the amount that the medical insurance can take from the settlement for treatment they offered related to the injury
• final payment