Category: Legal

Statman, Harris and Eyrich, LLC has extensive experience in litigating and handling a range of legal fields that are relevant to both individuals and companies including mass tort and class action lawsuits. Although many people are familiar with a class action lawsuit, few outside of the legal professions has heard of the term mass tort. This article explains the two types of lawsuits and recommends those affected to contact the firm to seek assistance for mass tort and class action law.

When companies wrong a group of people, those who fell ill or injured due to the corporation’s negligence may fight for their right by filling a mass tort or class action lawsuit.

What is a Class action lawsuit?

When a situation in a company results in damages and injuries to a group of people, the firm’s attorney will file a class action lawsuit on behalf of the entire team. This combined claim tends to promote judicial efficiency by reducing the number of individual court cases that arise from similar allegations of crime. For an instance, if a group of customers accuses a given company of overcharging them for a product or service, they can file a class action lawsuit and the courts will make a decision on all claims based on the single complaint.

However, for attorneys to file class action lawsuits, they must meet the following criteria:

· They must notify individuals in the class and give them the chance to opt out and choose their own representation

· They must file a motion in court to allow the plaintiff to act on behalf of the whole group

· Plaintiff need to show that they have similar experience with the company with the others involved in the lawsuit

· Besides, the plaintiff must prove that a class action is ideal for holding defendants accountable. The result of individual trials would not be as cost-effective or beneficial for all those involved.

Therefore, the compensation received by each person must not be worth the costs and time of employing an attorney for an individual case.

Mass Torts

On the other hand, mass torts are lawsuits filed by a large group of people who acquire injuries on a large scale against a corporate defendant. Mass torts include mass toxic tort claims, product liability torts, and mass disaster torts like an oil spill. Like the class action lawsuit, mass tort helps courts to reduce the number of cases brought by individuals. Thus, the two types of lawsuits allow attorneys to represent the injured persons in individual cases.