In general, mass tort cases involve a large number of individual claimants with claims associated with a single product. Despite the large numbers of claimants, there is a common factual and legal thread that aligns these cases. The commonality among the cases enables lawyers to pursue a campaign against the defendant, leading to an effective outcome for each individual plaintiff. Pursuit of compensation for the injuries clients have sustained due to the negligent and sometimes fraudulent actions of defendant manufacturers and/or distributors is the goal of mass tort cases.
Representing plaintiffs in mass torts cases is the forefront of plaintiffs' mass tort litigation. Ensuring that their case is handled on a personal basis in this very important claim for the individual and their families is critical and qualified lawyers make this happen. There are many types of mass tort litigation and hundreds of federal and state laws that govern this area of the law.
Mass Tort Litigation often involves the following types of cases:
- Anti-Trust Claims - Antitrust or Competition laws legislate against trade practices which undermine competitiveness or are considered to be unfair. Antitrust laws were originally formulated to combat business trusts. Most antitrust activity can be classified in the following areas: bid rigging, monopolization and oligopolization, price fixing, and vendor lock-in.
- Consumer Product Claims - Products liability litigation involves defective and unreasonably dangerous products that can kill or injure people. There are three major types of product defects that incur liability: design defects, manufacturing defects, and defects in marketing.
- Defective Design and Manufacture, Failure to Warn Claims- Manufactures of products have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of products they market/sell to consumers. If there are product design problems or injuries caused because of the product the company has a legal responsibility to either remove the product from the market and/or inform the public about the problems and risks.
- Breach of Warranty Claims - Most products in the market have some type of specific warranty issued by the manufacturer. If the manufacturer does not honor the warranty, and there are problems with the product that remain resolved, the manufacturer may be in breach of the warranty contract.
- Discrimination, Race, EEOC, Employee Benefits Claims- There are many federal and state employment laws have been enacted to ensure fairness and equality for employees. Failure to comply is in serious violation of these laws. Some of these benefits take the form of public insurance, such as unemployment compensation and workers' compensation.
- Insurance Claims - Whether these claims involve health, life, retirement, worker's compensation or disability insurance claims there are numerous laws that employers must comply with and that protect individuals. Additionally auto insurance claims are also subject to federal and state laws.
- Medical Devices Claims - Individuals, and their families, who have been a victim of defective medical devices including heart valves, artificial joints, bone screws, defibrillators or prostheses have protection under a variety of laws.
- Pharmaceutical Claims - Drugs, including dietary supplements that have been recalled or removed from the market after injuring or killing patients, may have short and/or long-term health impacts on individuals and are very serious offenses.
- Personal injury accidents - plant explosions, chemical leaks, airplane crashes, or dangerous products sold to the public
There are also other types of mass tort lawsuits. If an individual believes their particular problem may fall into the category a qualified professional can help determine the legal validity of a potential case by a complete review of the facts.