Mass Tort Deals: Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation

Mass-tort lawsuits over products like pelvic and hernia mesh, Roundup, opioids, talcum powder, and hip implants consume a substantial part of the federal civil caseload. But multidistrict litigation, which federal courts use to package these individual tort suits into one proceeding, has not been extensively analyzed. In Mass Tort Deals, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch marshals a wide array of empirical data to suggest that a systematic lack of checks and balances in our courts may benefit everyone but the plaintiffs - the very people who are often unable to stand up for themselves. Rather than faithfully representing them, plaintiffs\u27 lawyers may sell them out in backroom settlements that compensate lawyers handsomely, pay plaintiffs little, and deny them the justice they seek. From diagnosis to reforms, Burch\u27s goal isn\u27t to eliminate these suits; it\u27s to save them. This book is a must read for concerned citizens, policymakers, lawyers, and judges alike.https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/books/1156/thumbnail.jp