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Trouble With All-Or-Nothing Settlements, The Symposium: Aggregate Justice: Perspectives Ten Years After Amchem And Ortiz, Howard M. Erichson
Trouble With All-Or-Nothing Settlements, The Symposium: Aggregate Justice: Perspectives Ten Years After Amchem And Ortiz, Howard M. Erichson
Faculty Scholarship
When defendants settle litigation involving multiple plaintiffs, they often insist that they will settle only if they obtain releases from all or nearly all of the plaintiffs in the group. If a defendant is going to spend money to resolve claims, it prefers to take its hit and move on. As one experienced settlement administrator puts it, when a defendant approaches plaintiffs' lawyers to discuss the settlement of a mass dispute, the "subject might be broached in various terms, [but] the underlying message is the same-'How much will it cost us to get out of all of these cases?" A …
Mass Tort Litigation And Inquisitorial Justice, Howard M. Erichson
Mass Tort Litigation And Inquisitorial Justice, Howard M. Erichson
Faculty Scholarship
In the past decade, settlement class actions have become increasingly popular in mass tort litigation, having been used successfully in cases such as the Dalkon Shield litigation, the Bjork-Shiley heart valve litigation, and the orthopedic bone screw litigation. Although the Supreme Court's opinion in Amchem has engendered some confusion over the continued viability of mass tort settlement class actions, it appears that such settlements remain a dominant approach to resolving mass tort lawsuits. With increasing frequency, plaintiffs and defendants come to court holding hands, and courts must launch their own vigorous inquiries into the merits of the parties' proffered settlement. …