1 - When Mass Torts Meet Multidistrict Litigation

Summary

Using illustrations from the Yasmin/Yaz and asbestos proceedings, Chapter 1 introduces multidistrict litigation and its inhabitants, situating individual and class-action litigation in the rearview mirror. As class certification wanes, so too does formal judicial oversight aimed at thwarting self-dealing lawyers. This is not, however, a revival of individual litigation where a plaintiff can effectively monitor her own suit. To the contrary, when a plaintiff retains an attorney, she will typically be one of the many clients that her lawyer “warehouses.” Nevertheless, judges embrace a push for settlements that exists across all civil cases, but can result in ethically dubious deals in the multidistrict litigation context. When private settlements occur on the back end and tort-reform measures like punitive damage caps deter lawyers from suing on the front end, litigation’s ability to unearth information on corporate wrongdoing and generate public goods like precedent, transparency, and equal treatment is in peril.