Mass tort litigations and class action suits share many features in common, although there are many legal differences between the two. Despite their differences, both ultimately defend people who may have been injured or have suffered losses or damages as a result of the defendant’s wrongdoing.
What Is A Mass Tort?
In essence, mass torts are a type of lawsuit for when hundreds or even thousands of people have become harmed is one way or another by the same product. The lawsuit will be headed by a country-wide network of attorneys, and the individuals they’ll be representing will have suffered varying degrees of losses or injuries due to the product in question.
One factor of a mass tort that makes it unique is that each individual will file their claims separately.
The vast majority of mass tort cases revolve around antitrust issues, pharmaceuticals, public disasters or defective products.
What Is A Class Action?
Unlike a mass tort, a class action is a single lawsuit that will have been filed on a large group of individuals’ behalf. A class action will revolve around the group of individuals common unfortunate circumstances, such as injury or losses, that resulted from the same defendant(s)’s actions, whether it was overbilling, fraud, neglect, or anything else. The majority of class action cases revolve around services and products.