When a Truck Accident Becomes a Mass Tort
A single truck crash can change many lives at once. When many victims suffer harm from the same event or dangerous conduct, the case can move beyond a typical personal injury claim. It may become a mass tort.
What Is A Mass Tort?
A mass tort is a group of individual lawsuits that share core facts. Each person keeps their own claim, damages, and evidence. But courts coordinate the cases to handle the common issues efficiently. This includes issues like how the crash happened, which companies are responsible, and what safety rules were violated.
Mass torts are different from class actions. In a class action, one or a few “class representatives” stand in for everyone, and the result binds the entire class. Compensation is usually distributed evenly or similarly because class members have similar injuries and damages.
In a mass tort, your injuries, medical bills, and other losses are evaluated on their own merit. You retain control over your own case, and compensation will be based on your specific losses.
When Does A Truck Crash Become A Mass Tort?
Truck accidents often result in multiple injuries, given the sheer size and weight of a commercial truck. Common scenarios leading to a mass tort include:
- Multiple vehicle pile-ups. Chain-reaction crashes on I-25, I-70, or snowy mountain passes can injure many people at once.
- Hazardous material spills. A fuel or chemical release can harm drivers, first responders, and nearby residents.
- Multiple accidents linked to defective parts. A single crash may become part of a larger mass tort case when it’s caused by faulty brakes, bad tires, or other defective parts linked to other collisions.
- Multiple crashes caused by company-wide policies or safety violations. Sometimes many accidents are linked together by misconduct like hours-of-service abuses, ELD tampering, or negligent hiring practices.
When there is a pattern in the underlying cause of several cases, courts may consolidate cases. Cases with shared facts can be centralized through multidistrict litigation (MDL). Similar cases are combined into one federal court for a simpler pretrial process.
Benefits Of Joining A Mass Tort
For injury victims, there are many benefits to joining a mass tort action:
- Pooled resources to gather evidence and hire experts in hazardous materials handling, fleet safety, ECM data, and accident reconstruction
- Reduced legal expenses for individual plaintiffs
- Accelerated resolution with discovery and other proceedings centralized
- Increased leverage against large and powerful companies as a group for potentially better settlement terms
- Plaintiffs are treated individually with compensation based on specific injuries and damages
Coordination can make complex cases fairer and more efficient, while preserving each person’s voice.
Because a mass tort involves many plaintiffs in similar circumstances, you may actually have a stronger case by joining the lawsuit. Testimony provided by other plaintiffs can add to your own to show the defendant was negligent. The defendant is also forced to address a mounting number of claims that are harder to dismiss or sweep under the rug than a single lawsuit.
There are generally eligibility criteria to join a mass tort lawsuit. A lawyer can help you determine if you’re eligible. If proceedings are already underway, you have a clear path to pursue.
If you are eligible to join a mass tort lawsuit, your attorney will first make sure your individual lawsuit is filed by the deadline. They may work with many other attorneys as the case proceeds and represent you to make sure your story is told in the context of the greater mass tort case.
Your lawyer will keep you updated as the mass tort moves forward and advise you when action is needed, usually when a settlement is being reached.