In theory, anyone who suffers an injury because of an unreasonably dangerous defect in a product they bought has a right to hold the product’s manufacturer “strictly liable” for any and all damages they have suffered due to their injury. In practice, though, a single injured person going up against a massive corporation has little chance of getting a positive result from their civil claim—unless that is, they work together with other people injured in similar ways by the same dangerous product.
Through what is known as a “mass tort,” hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people can combine legal and financial resources to more effectively demand compensation from the people responsible for injuring them. As you might imagine, though, cases like this can be extremely complex even by the usual standards of personal injury litigation, so having a skilled mass torts lawyer on your side can be all but essential to achieving a favorable final result.
How Mass Torts and Class Action Lawsuits Work
Some of what was just said above may sound familiar to people who have read about “class action” lawsuits in the news. However, while a “class action” is a specific type of “mass tort” claim and both involve many injured people coming together to demand compensation from the same defendant(s), the two terms are not interchangeable, and each type of claim plays out very differently in practice.
The main difference between the two types of litigation is “certification”—more specifically, whether the group of people pursuing the claim can be certified under federal law as a “class.” In a nutshell, a “class” is a group of people who were all harmed by the same defendant in virtually the same way, all suffered basically the same losses, and all have a roughly equal chance of achieving a successful result from their claim. Additionally, there generally must be a specific number of people in a “class” that would make each person pursuing their own claim impractical.
In this scenario, a single person can be nominated as “representative” and given the responsibility of pursuing compensation on behalf of all claim members, who would then split any money recovered equally amongst themselves. However, since most people who get hurt by dangerous products have different injuries and losses from one another, these types of claims generally proceed as traditional mass torts, where all tort members share resources with each other but still maintain their own distinct claims that may each have unique results.
What Cases Could an Attorney Help to Join?
Our team has experience handling mass tort cases centered around all manner of defective products, dangerous drugs, and other forms of corporate misconduct, including:
A qualified mass torts lawyer can go into further detail about the legal options available to a particular person during a private initial meeting.
Contact a Mass Torts Attorney for Help
While you may understandably be hesitant to attach your civil claim to those being pursued by many other people, mass tort litigation can be a great way to improve your collective chances of getting paid fairly for your losses. That said, you will also want guidance throughout the process from a legal professional who has gotten good results from similar cases in the past.
An experienced mass torts lawyer is available to be your steadfast ally from start to finish of your claim. Call today for a consultation.
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