By Joe Fantini October 29, 2024

Mass tort cases begin when someone makes a claim against a defendant who has harmed many people. A party in one of the cases might take steps to have the case reclassified as multidistrict litigation (MDL). This means that, for pretrial proceedings, many people can become plaintiffs against the same defendant for essentially the same claim, greatly increasing judicial efficiency.

Identifying Widespread Harm: The Foundation of Mass Tort Claims

Mass tort claims arise when many different people are injured in the same way by the same defendant. The classic mass tort claim is the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, which killed perhaps 20,000 people and injured half a million more due to a chemical leak at a Union Carbide plant.

Think about the problems in litigating such a case. You would have 20,000 wrongful death cases and 500,000 personal injury cases. This is enough to overwhelm the judicial system. Fortunately, the judicial system has devised efficient systems to resolve mass tort claims.

Investigating the Link Between the Defendants and the Harm

To unify hundreds or even thousands of cases, you need to establish a causal link between the defendant’s action or inaction and the harm suffered by the plaintiffs. In the Bhopal disaster, for example, lack of regulatory oversight combined with human error were major factors in the disaster. Although the Bhopal disaster was not resolved through MDL, it is a classic case for which MDL litigation was designed.

Filing Initial Lawsuits: The First Steps in Mass Tort Litigation

The investigation stage helps to establish the causal link between the defendant’s misconduct and the harm suffered by the victims. Typically, the next thing that happens is that the plaintiffs file a large number of individual lawsuits in various jurisdictions. These jurisdictions might range from New York to California, from Montana to Texas, and from Alaska to Hawaii.

Mass tort cases are often filed in state courts, but filing thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of cases can overwhelm the judicial system. To manage this volume more efficiently than is possible with individual suits, the legal system has developed tools like Multi-District Litigation (MDL).

Building a Mass Tort Case: The Role of Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)

To initiate an MDL case, a participant in one of the individual lawsuits must file a motion with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML). This motion, which must meet various substantive and formal requirements, asks the JPML to consolidate the cases for pretrial proceedings.

The JPML might not accept your case for multidistrict litigation. If it does, however, it will assign the case to a federal court, which will oversee the MDL. MDL does not resolve entire cases. Instead, it handles pretrial matters that are common for all cases. These matters include the pretrial discovery evidence-gathering process, as well as pretrial motions such as motions for the suppression of inadmissible evidence.

The federal court might also hold a limited number of bellwether trials designed to test the viability of various claims and defenses and thereby facilitate settlement. At this point, many parties to the individual lawsuits might decide to settle their cases out of court.

The discovery process, for example, might have generated so much evidence that settlement is the only viable option. If the parties still cannot reach a settlement, the court will remand the case back to the state courts for final resolution.

Alternative: The Class Action Lawsuit

Class action lawsuits are another way of resolving cases where a multitude of victims suffer injury. Unlike multidistrict litigation, class actions handle lawsuits from beginning to end. MDL, however, is a far more common and often more effective way of resolving mass tort claims.

Contact a Lawyer for Help with Mass Tort Cases

If you’re considering joining mass tort litigation, a lawyer can help you through the process.

An experienced attorney can explain your legal options, guide you in gathering essential documentation, and ensure that your rights are protected throughout the litigation. They will also manage complex procedural steps, advocate for fair compensation, and handle negotiations with the defense.