Kansas City Mass Torts Attorney
Giving You a Voice After a Serious Injury
Personal injury lawsuits are typically filed by a single individual who has been injured in a singular accident or incident. However, when hundreds or thousands of people are all injured due to similar circumstances, it may be easier and necessary to manage their claims as a mass tort.
If you think you need help filing a mass tort in Kansas City, you can turn to Bertram & Graf, L.L.C. Our mass tort attorneys have successfully represented thousands of clients throughout the years in a wide variety of injury claims, from the straightforward to the complex when the stakes are at their highest. Trust your mass tort in our experienced hands.
Call (888) 398-2277 to connect with our law firm about filing a lawsuit or joining a mass tort. Initial consultations are free.
Understanding How Mass Torts Work
The underlying purpose of a mass tort is expediting the legal process when a single defendant is being accused of bringing harm or wrongdoing to potentially hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs. Filing all those lawsuits in just one court, i.e. the court that serves the defendant’s region, would jam the legal system, and only a fraction of those claims would ever see a judge or jury. A mass tort alleviates this problem by allowing plaintiffs to file a lawsuit on similar merits and evidence in their own localized court, no matter what state and city they call home.
Key concepts of a mass tort:
- Similarity: To join a mass tort, you must be injured by the same defendant in a way similar to all other plaintiffs. However, the details of your injuries and your damages may vary. For example, you and Plaintiff 500 each took the same prescription medicine but experienced wildly different – yet both painful and dangerous – side effects.
- Individuality: Every lawsuit handled in a mass tort is seen and judged individually. Using this method, each plaintiff can win a unique amount of compensation based on their own unique damages. It also means that some plaintiffs may win their cases while others in the same mass tort lose their cases.
- Sharing and support: If your claim belongs to a mass tort, your attorney can easily reference materials, evidence, testimonials, and so forth used in other claims of that mass tort to build your own argument. In this way, all claims in a mass tort help support and pave the way for those to follow.
Mass torts also typically begin with a bellwether trial or case. This is the first case of the mass tort to go before a judge, who must evaluate its merit and the potential financial value of the claimed damages. If the judge determines the bellwether trial does have merit, then the mass tort is approved and plaintiffs in all corners of the country have had their own claims validated. That is to say, a future defendant cannot so easily try to have a claim dismissed outright if a bellwether trial has already established that a similar plaintiff’s claim was valid.
Difference Between Mass Tort & Class Action
You might have heard the term ‘class action’ before and thought it was interchangeable with ‘mass tort.’ It is not. A class action is different from a mass tort in that the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of plaintiffs are all bundled into one class, which files a single lawsuit. If the defendants prevail, every single person in the class action has lost their lawsuit. On the other hand, if the plaintiff class is successful, then every single person in the class action has won.
In such a circumstance, any damages rewarded by a judge or jury will be distributed – equally, most often – to all class members, be it 100 or 100,000 people. Plaintiffs in a class action are also typically injured by the same event or in the same exact way. For example, if an airplane crashes on the runway and injures 200 people, then a class action may be used to bundle all of their claims together, saving everyone time and resources in the process.
Types of Mass Torts
- A mass tort is usually filed for one of two reasons:
- Dangerous medical devices and drugs: If thousands of people take a dangerous prescription or over the counter (OTC) medicine, they may all suffer different ailments as a result. However, they have all been harmed by the same source. The same is true of a defective medical device. A mass tort can be used to simplify the legal process.
- Defective consumer products: A poorly manufactured product may put countless people in danger of the same or similar harm. Depending on the key details of how a defective product is hurting consumers, though, a class action may become more appropriate than a mass tort.
Call Our Kansas City Mass Tort Attorneys Now – (888) 398-2277
Were you injured by a dangerous drug, defective medical device, or poorly designed product? There might be many others out there like you, who are facing similar hardships and dealing with similar damages. Discover your rights and see if a mass tort is available to your case, or if you should start one, by teaming up with Bertram & Graf, L.L.C. Our highly experienced mass tort lawyers are standing by to help you through this difficult time by providing steadfast and innovative legal counsel.
Get in contact with us today to learn more about mass torts.
Initial consultations are free.