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Another Jackpot (In)Justice: Verdict Variability And Issue Preclusion In Mass Torts, Byron G. Stier
Another Jackpot (In)Justice: Verdict Variability And Issue Preclusion In Mass Torts, Byron G. Stier
Byron G. Stier
If there are no prior inconsistent verdicts, non-mutual offensive issue preclusion generally allows a finding by a single jury to bar relitigation, in future cases, of the issue by the defendant who lost in the prior case. This approach, however, ignores the possibility that the first verdict delivered may have been an outlier if further verdicts were permitted to be delivered. In mass tort litigation, such a flawed approach may result in critical issues such as defect or negligence being resolved by only six jurors, whose potentially outlier verdict is then applied to resolve the cases of thousands, perhaps bankrupting …
Jackpot Justice: Verdict Variability And The Mass Tort Class Action, Byron G. Stier
Jackpot Justice: Verdict Variability And The Mass Tort Class Action, Byron G. Stier
Byron G. Stier
Mass tort scholars, practitioners, and judges struggle with determining the most efficient approach to adjudicate sometimes tens of thousands of cases. Favoring class actions, mass tort scholars and judges have assumed that litigating any issue once is best. But while litigating any one issue could conceivably save attorneys’ fees and court resources, a single adjudication of thousands of mass tort claims is unlikely to further tort goals of corrective justice, efficiency, or compensation in a reliable way. That is because, as recent empirical research on jury behavior shows, any one jury’s verdict may be an outlier on a potential bell …