A useful guide for attorneys of all levels of experience to most phases of mass tort cases.

Does not include the Appendices in the full report of the same title.

The traditional definition of torts involves bizarre, idiosyncratic events where a single plaintiff with a physical impairment sues the specific defendant he believes to have wrongfully caused that malady. Yet public attention has focused increasingly on mass personal-injury lawsuits over asbestos, cigarettes, guns, the diet drug fen-phen, breast implants, and, most recently, Vioxx. Richard A. Nagareda’s Mass Torts in a World of Settlement is the first attempt to analyze the lawyer’s role in this world of high-stakes, multibillion-dollar litigation. These mass settlements, Nagareda argues, have transformed the legal system so acutely that rival teams of lawyers operate as sophisticated governing powers rather than litigators. His controversial solution is the replacement of the existing tort system with a private administrative framework to address both current and future claims. This book is a must-read for concerned citizens, policymakers, lawyers, investors, and executives grappling with the changing face of mass torts.

Presenting twenty-two years of multidistrict litigation data, this book exposes a systematic lack of checks and balances in our courts.

Hardbound - New, hardbound print book.

The Report of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and the Working Group on Mass Torts to the Chief Justice of the U.S. and to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Chapters include: letter of transmittal to the Chief Justice; introduction; summary; the mass torts phenomenon; discrete problems of mass torts; potential solutions for consideration; and protocols for further action. The extensive appendices are available in a separate volume.

In class actions, attorneys effectively hire clients rather than act as their agent. Lawyer-financed, lawyer-controlled, and lawyer-settled, this entrepreneurial litigation invites lawyers to act in their own interest. John Coffee’s goal is to save class action, not discard it, and to make private enforcement of law more democratically accountable.