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.
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.
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.
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.
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.