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Mass torts

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Institution
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Full-Text Articles in Law

Two Steps Too Far: New Limitations On The Use Of The Texas Two-Step To Resolve Mass Tort Liability In Bankruptcy, Samuel E. Bartz May 2024

Two Steps Too Far: New Limitations On The Use Of The Texas Two-Step To Resolve Mass Tort Liability In Bankruptcy, Samuel E. Bartz

University of Miami Business Law Review

This paper explores the mechanisms by which companies have utilized corporate restructuring through divisive mergers in conjunction with the available protections and tools of the United States Bankruptcy Code to resolve mass tort liability without placing the entirety of the business under bankruptcy. Popularized in Texas, a divisive merger is a mechanism by which an existing business entity divides itself into two new entities, allocating all pre-existing assets and liabilities to each as they see fit. Although intended to be a means by which to easily sell assets of a business, it has been more popularly used to resolve mass …


The Great Escape: Exploring Chapter 11’S Allure To Mass Tort Defendants, Natalie R. Earles Mar 2022

The Great Escape: Exploring Chapter 11’S Allure To Mass Tort Defendants, Natalie R. Earles

Louisiana Law Review

The article explores Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as a defense strategy used by mass tort defendants to escape unfavorable litigation and proposes the U.S. Congress to revise the Bankruptcy Code to disincentivize the misuse of bankruptcy power.


Mass Torts: Dispute Resolution In France And The United States--The Vioxx And Mediator Cases Compared, Fred Einbinder Mr. Jun 2020

Mass Torts: Dispute Resolution In France And The United States--The Vioxx And Mediator Cases Compared, Fred Einbinder Mr.

Washington International Law Journal

Dispute resolution in legal systems has largely been designed for handling issues between small groups of individuals or organizations. Obtaining legal redress for those injured by mass torts and using the law as a means to prevent future occurrences has presented challenges for the development of effective dispute resolution mechanisms to obtain relief for plaintiffs and deter future tortfeasors. A comparison of French and American mass tort law and practice offers a fertile field for useful comparative study given the significant differences in approach taken by each country’s legal system. These differences derive as much from history, politics, the attitudes …


An Opt-In Option For Class Actions, Scott Dodson Jan 2016

An Opt-In Option For Class Actions, Scott Dodson

Michigan Law Review

Federal class actions today follow an opt-out model: absent an affirmative request to opt out, a class member is in the class. Supporters defend the opt-out model as necessary to ensure the viability of class actions and the efficacy of substantive law. Critics argue the opt-out model is a poor proxy for class-member consent and promotes overbroad and ill-defined classes; these critics favor an opt-in model. This bimodal debate—opt out vs. opt in—has obscured an overlooked middle ground that relies on litigant choice: Why not give the class the option to pursue certification on either an opt-out or an opt-in …


Considerations In Choosing Counsel For Multidistrict Litigation Cases And Mass Tort Cases, Stanwood R. Duval Jr. Feb 2014

Considerations In Choosing Counsel For Multidistrict Litigation Cases And Mass Tort Cases, Stanwood R. Duval Jr.

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Pesky Persistence Of Class Action Tolling In Mass Tort Multidistrict Litigation, Jeremy T. Grabill Feb 2014

The Pesky Persistence Of Class Action Tolling In Mass Tort Multidistrict Litigation, Jeremy T. Grabill

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.


It's Not Over 'Til It's Over: Mandating Federal Pretrial Jurisdiction And Oversight In Mass Torts, Tanya Pierce Jan 2014

It's Not Over 'Til It's Over: Mandating Federal Pretrial Jurisdiction And Oversight In Mass Torts, Tanya Pierce

Missouri Law Review

Nearly twenty years ago, speaking of the difficulties inherent in managing mass tort cases, Chief Justice William Rehnquist predicted that without coordinated state and federal mechanisms, lawyers would "seek to pursue duplicative and exhaustive litigation." And some courts, "operating under a parochial view of the situation," would allow them to do so. He warned that the result would be "expense, delay, resulting crowding of dockets, divergent decisions on identical factual questions, and sometimes the insolvency of the defendants who are being sued." Despite this and similar warnings, expensive and exhaustive litigation is exactly what has happened in many cases.


An Experiment In Law Reform: Amchem Products V. Windsor, Patrick M. Hanlon Jun 2013

An Experiment In Law Reform: Amchem Products V. Windsor, Patrick M. Hanlon

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Supreme Court's 1997 decision in Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor struck down the most ambitious settlement class action ever attempted. The settlement was, however, the logical outgrowth of the federal judiciary's efforts in the early 1990s to resolve a "disaster" of "critical proportions." Many factors, not least the Supreme Court's decision in Amchem, turned the tide against this trend. Ironically, however, the post-Amchem world has come to look a lot like Amchem. The settlement's central feature-deferral of unimpaired claims to assure the availability of resources to compensate the sick-was subsequently incorporated (either by statute or through judicial decision) into …


Adequately Representing Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch May 2013

Adequately Representing Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.


Foreward, Howard M. Erichson, Benjamin C. Zipursky May 2013

Foreward, Howard M. Erichson, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.


Ethical Issues In Mass Tort Plaintiffs’ Representation: Beyond The Aggregate Settlement Rule, Nancy J. Moore May 2013

Ethical Issues In Mass Tort Plaintiffs’ Representation: Beyond The Aggregate Settlement Rule, Nancy J. Moore

Fordham Law Review

Those who have addressed ethics issues for plaintiffs’ lawyers in mass tort litigation have focused on possible reform of the aggregate settlement rule to facilitate global settlements. This Article addresses a broader range of ethical issues, including (1) application of the general conflicts of interest rule to both client-client and client-lawyer conflicts; (2) unresolved issues concerning the interpretation of the current aggregate settlement rule, including the need to disclose client names and the applicability of the rule to court-approved settlements and formula or matrix allocations; and (3) the ability of lawyers to voluntarily withdraw from representing plaintiffs who reject an …


Plaintiff Control And Domination In Multidistrict Mass Torts, S. Todd Brown Jan 2013

Plaintiff Control And Domination In Multidistrict Mass Torts, S. Todd Brown

Cleveland State Law Review

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions concerning preclusion doctrine stress the “deep-rooted historic tradition that everyone should have his own day in court.” Nonetheless, “properly conducted class actions” are a recognized exception to this general rule because such actions ensure that nonparties are “adequately represented by someone with the same interests who was a party to the suit.” Mass torts, however, frequently involve numerous plaintiffs with diverse legal and factual issues that are not “sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation.” Thus, it may be reasonably feared that the Court’s firm insistence on preserving individual autonomy will deny plaintiffs the economies …


State Medical Reimbursement Lawsuits After Tobacco: Is The Domino Effect For Lead Paint Manufacturers And Others Fair Game? , Richard L. Cupp Jr. Oct 2012

State Medical Reimbursement Lawsuits After Tobacco: Is The Domino Effect For Lead Paint Manufacturers And Others Fair Game? , Richard L. Cupp Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

In 1998 the tobacco industry reached a settlement with the government for $246 billion. The massive size and scope of the states' tobacco settlement will inevitably exert a powerful influence on tort litigation for decades. The proliferation of copycat lawsuits, such as lead paint claims, seeking to emulate the spectacular success of the tobacco lawsuits will be one of the first aftershocks. The appropriate legislative response to this copycat litigation is to enact legislation limiting mass tort claims by states and other government entities. Because politics and economics may be influencing the filing of these lawsuits, rather than a purer …


Mass Torts And Due Process, Sergio J. Campos May 2012

Mass Torts And Due Process, Sergio J. Campos

Vanderbilt Law Review

As the old saying goes, hard cases make bad law. But hard cases also reveal the limits of legal doctrine. In this Article, I turn to a class of hard cases--mass torts--to rethink the law of procedural due process under the Due Process Clause. Mass torts have long perplexed courts and scholars. They include torts caused by asbestos and other toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil spills, and other mass-produced products and services. The plaintiffs not only suffer significant injuries, but the sheer number of plaintiffs, each with claims that raise unique fact and legal issues, stretch judicial resources to the limit. …


Merging Roles: Mass Tort Lawyers As Agents And Trustees, Charles Silver Apr 2012

Merging Roles: Mass Tort Lawyers As Agents And Trustees, Charles Silver

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Mass Disaster Mediation: Innovative, Adr, Or A Lion's Den?, Elizabeth Baker Murrill Mar 2012

Mass Disaster Mediation: Innovative, Adr, Or A Lion's Den?, Elizabeth Baker Murrill

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Mass torts and other mass claims are becoming an ever more popular forum for the use of alternative dispute resolution to resolve parties' claims in the wake of events that produce thousands of conflicts overnight. Mediation, in particular, has been used in several high-profile mass disaster events in an effort to resolve individual claims efficiently and quickly. This paper evaluates special risks posed in this kind of mediation that can go to the heart and the integrity of the mediation process. The thesis of this paper is that the potential imbalance in the parties' experience, education, and individual situation can …


Changing Equalities, Jack B. Weinstein Jan 2009

Changing Equalities, Jack B. Weinstein

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.


What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Mass Torts?, Anthony J. Sebok Apr 2008

What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Mass Torts?, Anthony J. Sebok

Michigan Law Review

Twenty years ago, Deborah Hensler and a team of scholars at the RAND Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice issued a report entitled Trends in Tort Litigation: The Story Behind the Statistics. Pressure had been mounting both in the business community and the Republican Party to "reform" tort law throughout the 1980s. There was concern that Americans "egged on by avaricious lawyers, sue[d] too readily, and irresponsible juries and activist judges wayla[id] blameless businesses at enormous cost to social and economic well-being." The RAND report argued that the real risk of a torts "explosion" came from the world of mass …


Book Review [Suing The Gun Industry: A Battle At The Crossroads Of Gun Control And Mass Torts], Santa Clara Law Review Jan 2006

Book Review [Suing The Gun Industry: A Battle At The Crossroads Of Gun Control And Mass Torts], Santa Clara Law Review

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.


Opting Out Of Liability: The Forthcoming, Near-Total Demise Of The Modern Class Action, Myriam Gilles Dec 2005

Opting Out Of Liability: The Forthcoming, Near-Total Demise Of The Modern Class Action, Myriam Gilles

Michigan Law Review

It is reasonable to expect that courts will demonstrate great solicitude for the recent innovation that I term "collective action waivers" - i.e., contractual provisions contained within arbitration agreements whereby consumers and others waive their rights to participate in any form of collective litigation or class arbitration. The history of mass tort class actions and the hegemonic expansion of pro-arbitration jurisprudence compel this conclusion. And, as the now-dominant economic model of contract law has moved the focus of courts from the value of consent to the value of efficiency, arbitration agreements found in all manner of shrink-wrap, scroll-text and bill-stuffer …


The Challenge To The Individual Causation Requirement In Mass Products Torts, Donald G. Gifford Jun 2005

The Challenge To The Individual Causation Requirement In Mass Products Torts, Donald G. Gifford

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Ethical Issues In Asbestos Litigation, Lester Brickman Jan 2005

Ethical Issues In Asbestos Litigation, Lester Brickman

Hofstra Law Review

Asbestos litigation has given rise to over 50,000,000 claims against 8400 former producers, distributors, installers and sellers of asbestos-containing products. To date, 850,000 claimants have sought compensation, costing businesses and insurance companies over $70 billion and resulting in more than 70 bankruptcies. Over 100,000 deaths are attributable to asbestos exposure with an additional 40,000 deaths anticipated over the next 30 years. Despite the significance of the ethical issues generated by the processes of acquiring, pressing and settling the most massive litigation in history, the legal literature is substantially devoid of any such discussion. One possible reason for this paucity of …


The Lawlessness Of Aggregative Torts, James A. Henderson Jr. Jan 2005

The Lawlessness Of Aggregative Torts, James A. Henderson Jr.

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Dangerous Allure Of The Issue Class Action, Laura J. Hines Jul 2004

The Dangerous Allure Of The Issue Class Action, Laura J. Hines

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Individual Justice In Mass Tort Litigation: Judge Jack B. Weinstein On Choice Of Law In Mass Tort Cases, Scott Fruehwald Jan 2002

Individual Justice In Mass Tort Litigation: Judge Jack B. Weinstein On Choice Of Law In Mass Tort Cases, Scott Fruehwald

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.


Deterrence: The Legitimate Function Of The Public Tort, Thomas C. Galligan, Jr. Jun 2001

Deterrence: The Legitimate Function Of The Public Tort, Thomas C. Galligan, Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Casey At The Bat: Judicial Treatment Of Mass Tort Litigation, Karen A. Geduldig Jan 2000

Casey At The Bat: Judicial Treatment Of Mass Tort Litigation, Karen A. Geduldig

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.


Class Actions: The Class As Party And Client, David L. Shapiro Jun 1999

Class Actions: The Class As Party And Client, David L. Shapiro

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.


Product Liability Issues In Mass Torts - View From The Bench, Hon. Helen E. Freedman Jan 1999

Product Liability Issues In Mass Torts - View From The Bench, Hon. Helen E. Freedman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Outrageous Fortune And The Criminalization Of Mass Torts, Richard A. Nagareda Mar 1998

Outrageous Fortune And The Criminalization Of Mass Torts, Richard A. Nagareda

Michigan Law Review

The case of the blameworthy-but-fortunate defendant has emerged as one of the most perplexing scenarios in mass tort litigation today. One need look no further than the front page of the newspaper to find examples of mass tort defendants said to have engaged in irresponsible conduct - even conduct that one might regard as morally outrageous in character - but that nonetheless advance eminently plausible contentions that they have not caused harm to others. This issue is not merely a matter for abstract speculation. A now-familiar mass tort scenario involves a defendant that markets a product without informing consumers about …