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Building A Better Mousetrap: A New Approach To Trying Mass Tort Cases, Richard O. Faulk

Richard Faulk

For many years, both state and federal courts have struggled with the extraordinarily difficult problems raised by mass tort litigation. In an effort to resolve these controversies, the courts have resorted to increasingly creative procedures -- with mixed results. Courts have tried class certification in various forms, consolidation on a "controversy by controversy" basis or on the basis of "common issues," and bellwether trials with smaller groups of plaintiffs selected by varying procedures. These creative techniques have been employed in the interest of achieving results and ending the controversies expeditiously. Unfortunately, in pursuing those goals, each technique has collided, in …