Mass Tort Litigation: Guide for 2025
Summary
- A mass tort occurs when a single intentional or negligent act causes harm to multiple individuals.
- Common examples of mass tort litigation include defective products, dangerous drugs, and environmental hazards.
- Unlike class action lawsuits, mass tort litigation keeps each claim individual and may result in separate outcomes.
Imagine you’ve been harmed by groundwater pollution leaking from a nearby industrial factory. You decide to sue the company that runs the factory and file a lawsuit. A judge later determines that the company is facing several similar lawsuits stemming from the factory leak. These cases might be considered a mass tort because many individual plaintiffs have suffered from a common event.
In this article, we’ll break down what qualifies as a mass tort and how these cases are handled in the legal system. We’ll also look at how mass torts settle, and the differences between mass torts and class action lawsuits.
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Mass Tort Meaning and Explanation
Let’s start at the beginning. A tort is any act that causes harm or infringes on a right where the responsible person is legally liable. For example, driving erratically and causing a car accident is a tort. The driver has a duty to drive safely and if their failure to do so causes injury or property damage, then that’s a tort.
So, what is a mass tort? The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School defines a mass tort as “some act or omission that harms or injures numerous people”. Essentially, it’s the same idea as a tort, but one action impacts many people.
One of the most common types of mass tort claims comes from defective products. The manufacturers of products have a duty to ensure their products are safe. Putting a dangerous product on the market, such as by failing to catch and remedy a design defect, could cause harm to multiple people. The act is the company’s placement of a dangerous product in the market. The harm to numerous people comes from consumers injured by the defective product.
Process For Mass Tort Cases
Here’s what you need to know about how the legal system approaches mass tort cases.
Multidistrict Litigation
Most mass tort disputes are resolved through multidistrict litigation. When you have multiple claimants alleging the same bad act, the court system often prefers to group the claims together. Claims are still individual, but the grouping helps move cases through the legal system efficiently.
Multidistrict litigation is a federal legal process. As a result, cases from several states can be grouped together. Where a case is heard will depend on the jurisdiction for a majority of the claims. The location of witnesses and a court’s pending caseload will also be considered.
Grouping mass tort claims through multidistrict litigation prevents the possibility that similar claims would lead to different outcomes. One judge will hear the cases even if there are thousands of claimants.
Bellwether Cases
A common step in multidistrict litigation is setting some cases for bellwether trials. This sets a small number of representative claims for trial, while leaving the others pending. The outcome of bellwether cases provide vital information to all of the involved parties. This information typically encourages settlement of outstanding claims similar to those resolved in bellwether trials.
Mass Tort Settlements
When mass tort cases settle, each settlement is individual to the plaintiff. While a defendant might offer similar settlements to plaintiffs who bring similar claims, each settlement can be negotiated separately.
Your settlement in a mass tort case will depend on several factors, but your lawyer will be responsible for negotiating the best deal on your behalf. ConsumerShield connects individuals harmed by mass torts with knowledgeable lawyers. Fill out the form on this page to connect with a local attorney today.
Mass Tort vs. Class Action Cases
A lot of people confuse mass tort and class action cases because both involve a defendant’s actions harming multiple plaintiffs. However, there are some big differences. Here’s what separates the two:
Mass Tort | Class Action |
---|---|
Individual claims with separate outcomes | Plaintiffs grouped together with a shared outcome |
Each plaintiff selects their own lawyer | The lead plaintiff and their lawyer represents the whole group |
Case results and settlements are individual and based on individual case facts | Case results and settlements are grouped and shared equally to group members |
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Mass Tort Examples
Lawsuits based on mass torts often gain significant press. Here are a few examples of well-known mass tort cases:
- Ozempic. Over 100 plaintiffs have alleged injuries related to their use of this weight loss drug. Multidistrict litigation has been set in Pennsylvania.
- Roundup. Plaintiffs allege use of Roundup led to development of cancer and neurological disorders. Bayer put forward a global settlement to resolve many of the claims against it, but individual mass tort lawsuits are still possible.
- Elmiron. This drug was developed to treat bladder inflammation, but its use was later linked to development of a rare eye condition. Multidistrict litigation is ongoing to resolve the many claims by patients who were not made aware of this potential side effect.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Mass torts are most common in cases alleging:
- Defective products
- Dangerous drugs or medical devices
- Deceptive business practices or consumer fraud
- Environmental hazard
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The 3M earplugs lawsuit has become the largest mass tort case in history with over 300,000 claims. The manufacturer faces a $6 billion settlement to be paid between 2023 and 2029.
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A mass tort is a type of legal claim, while multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a legal process. The mass tort is the injury you and other claimants suffered based on a defendant’s action or negligence. MDL groups cases such as mass torts into an efficient process to resolve the cases in the same court. You may bring a mass tort lawsuit that is resolved through the MDL process.