Insight Into the World of Class Actions and Mass Torts

Class action and mass tort lawsuits are universally recognized as high-stakes litigations. Given the ­publicity following the slew of eye popping settlements and jury verdicts generated over the past two decades, such a response is understandable. Everyone is familiar with the astronomical settlements and verdicts obtained in recent years in the cases involving Vioxx, Yaz, NFL concussion, the Volkswagen emission scandal, Pinnacle hips, Stryker hips, and “kids-for-cash.” While the public and media focus on the awards and parties involved, they often ignore the fact that these cases, which regularly last in excess of five years, ­involve clashes between the titans of the legal profession debating some of the most hotly contested factual, scientific, legal and procedural issues courtrooms have ever seen. Over my career, I have had the opportunity to represent clients in both class action and mass tort litigations. Attorneys representing plaintiffs and defendants in these types of cases recognize the benefits of having a large number of injured people aggregated in a single forum, which allows the matters to proceed in an extremely efficient manner helping to facilitate the timely resolution of the numerous claims. While class actions and mass torts share many similarities, they are not the same and have very unique and significant distinctions.

In class actions, the injured parties have suffered similar harm (injuries or damages) which arise from the same conduct on the part of the defendants. This allows for the filing of a class action lawsuit instead of the filing of various individual lawsuits, for ­oftentimes relatively small damage amounts, on behalf of a group of individuals that are treated together as one. Common examples of class action lawsuits are those involving civil rights, environmental and employment discrimination claims. Procedurally, after plaintiffs satisfy the requirements under Federal Rule Civil Procedure 23, or the governing state rule, the class is deemed “certified.” After the class is certified, the case proceeds on issues common to all class members and all of the potentially injured parties must be notified and provided with an opportunity to participate or “opt-out” of the case. Once a settlement or verdict is reached, regardless of the circumstances and individual facts, class members receive a share of the ­verdict or settlement that as closely as possible approximates their proportionate share of the total monetary award.