A Lafayette mass torts lawyer helps people who have suffered similar injuries due to a single defendant’s negligence. Our firm represents injured clients as they seek the compensation they deserve, especially in cases involving unintended side effects from prescription drugs.
If you’ve been injured in Lafayette and believe you may be eligible to join a mass torts case, one of our mass torts lawyers can offer guidance and support as you pursue your case in court. We want to help you make the most of your settlement. Our team can investigate your case, determine liability, and pursue a settlement or take your case to trial if necessary. We are not afraid to go after the big corporations.
A tort is a case against a defendant based on their carelessness causing harm to an individual or group. Torts do not fall under a criminal statute, so penalties are monetary rather than criminal.
These financial penalties reimburse plaintiffs for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other damages. Tort case penalties can also include punitive damages, which are intended to punish the defendant for particularly egregious behavior.
A single tort may be levied against a company or individual based on the harm caused to several people. Common tort cases include the release of a harmful drug.
In certain circumstances, the court may rule that all cases against a company for the same tort can be combined as one case. This creates a mass tort in which the attorneys for all plaintiffs work together to form a case against the defendant.
By combining resources, this group of attorneys may be able to force the defendant to a favorable result for the plaintiffs faster than normal court proceedings.
How Does aMass Tort CaseWork?
At some point, you may suffer an injury due to another person’s careless actions. While this can be an intentional act, such as an assault or kidnapping, most personal injury lawsuits arise from accidents. However, just because a person does not mean to cause harm to another does not mean they are not legally liable.
Though mass torts involve multiple cases against the same defendant, plaintiffs and their lawyers typically proceed individually. For example, if several people suffer injuries from taking the same medication, they could file separate lawsuits against the manufacturer. They would present their cases together during pretrial hearings, but the trials and compensation awards would remain separate.
This approach enables victims to seek financial recovery based on their specific injuries, rather than sharing a settlement or court award with other claimants.
What Types of Damages Can You Recover
in a Mass Tort Case?
It’s important to keep in mind that mass tort cases treat each plaintiff separately, as opposed to class-action lawsuits, which group victims and their damages together. This means the court will distribute the compensation according to each plaintiff’s individual damages and losses. Your damages may include:
- Past and future medical expenses (e.g., any hospitalizations, surgeries, rehabilitation, assistive medical devices, or prescription medicines that resulted from your injuries)
- Loss of income (e.g., lost wages and any bonuses or promotions you missed due to having to attend doctor’s appointments, physical therapy sessions, etc.)
- Diminished work capacity (e.g., if your accident-related injuries now prevent you from performing your current job duties and you have to take a lower-paying job or quit working altogether)
- Pain and suffering (e.g., you now experience chronic pain from the incident that prevents you from doing household chores, cooking dinner for your family, etc.)
- Scarring or disfigurement (e.g., your injuries due to the at-fault party’s negligence permanently altered your appearance or left you disabled)
- Loss of enjoyment of life (e.g., you can no longer enjoy activities you did before the accident, such as jogging, gardening, or playing with your children)
A mass torts lawyer from Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers can analyze your case in Lafayette and calculate the full value of your damages. We leave no stone unturned in seeking the fair amount you deserve.
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Which Mass Tort Lawsuits
Have Been Successful?
Mass tort lawsuits often do not follow the standard processes for class action litigation. As a result, giving an accurate prediction of success or failure is impossible. However, some past successful mass tort lawsuits have involved:
- Asbestos
- Tobacco
- Medical product liability (including manufacturers of defective breast implants and heart defibrillators)
- Drug manufacturer litigation
- Airline or railroad company litigation after a crash
- Toxic or carcinogenic substances
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What Kind of Mass Tort Lawsuits
Can You Join?
There are currently several types of mass tort lawsuits plaintiffs are joining. If you have suffered an injury due to any of these complications, you may want to consider reaching out to our office serving Lafayette.
- Hernia mesh: Approximately one million hernia repair surgeries are completed each year in the United States, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Unfortunately, chronic pain after the procedure happens in many patients.
- Hip replacement: While millions of Americans have benefited from this surgery and were given a new lease on life, others have developed serious problems, such as pain and mobility issues.
- IVC filters: Inferior vena cava (IVC) filters are small medical devices used for patients at high risk of experiencing an arterial blockage in the lungs or a pulmonary embolism. When these filters are defective, they can perforate the inferior vena cava.
- Mesothelioma: According to a 2017 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), thousands of people pass away from malignant mesothelioma each year. Often, the cause was asbestos exposure on the job.
- NAS: Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) refers to a series of medical complications that occur when a mother uses prescription drugs during her pregnancy. Many parents are holding the drug manufacturers responsible.
- Roundup: The product known as Roundup, created by the Monsanto corporation, is one of the most common herbicides used in the United States. It is also linked to causing certain cancers in humans, and the manufacturers are being held responsible.
- Surgical stapler: According to the FDA, hundreds of thousands of people have been injured by surgical staples in the last decade. Surgeons rely on surgical staples to seal incision sites after surgery.
- Talcum powder: Talcum powder has long been associated with infant care, and many people use it to stay dry and fresh. However, this powder contains the dangerous ingredient talc, which has been linked to deadly mesothelioma, per medical journals like the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.
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Why You Should Have Our Firm
Handle Your Mass Tort Case
The team at Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers has 250 years of combined experience handling personal injury cases. We fight for our clients in and out of court, winning millions of dollars in cash settlements. Here are a few examples of settlements and judgments we have won for our past clients:
- $10,400,000 – Loss of revenue
- $3,816,421 – Negligent operation of a medical van
- $500,000 – Death resulting from medical negligence
- $400,000 – Surgeon who left guide wire in the patient
- $180,000 – Defective tire causes one-car accident and neck injury
When you hire our firm to handle your mass tort case, we will fight to recover damages for your injuries while you recover.
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Why Should I Join a
Mass Tort Lawsuit in Lafayette?
Mass torts carry several significant advantages, depending on the circumstances. The mass tort attorney we assign to your case can tell you if your claim is a good fit for a mass tort. One of the main benefits is that mass torts allow victims to pool their resources.
A mass tort case is often filed against large corporations, such as pharmaceutical manufacturers or oil companies. These companies may have engaged in behavior that injured thousands of people, but each in a unique way. A mass tort allows these victims to stand up to negligent companies as a group, rather than facing them alone.
What Is the Difference Between
Mass Torts and Class Actions?
Class action lawsuits and mass torts are very similar, as they both involve multiple plaintiffs and a single defendant, as well as a common act that led to an injury. However, there are key distinctions that people need to be made aware of.
Mass Torts Keep Your Case Separate
The most important distinction is that mass torts keep all the plaintiffs’ cases separate. Therefore, if one person has a unique set of circumstances that led to them filing a suit, a mass tort case could give them a better chance at recovering compensation to address their unique damages. Conversely, a class action uses a single representative plaintiff to speak for all the claimants.
Mass Torts Do Not Require Identical Fact Patterns
Class actions require all plaintiffs to have identical fact patterns and injuries that lump them into a class. For example, all people a corporation fired because of their gender may file a class action suit since they had the same “injuries.”
These criteria must fit the requirements provided in Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, according to the Legal Information Institute (LII). By contrast, mass torts allow people to maintain their individuality while banding together to pool resources. This can apply to both the compensation they seek and the circumstances that led to them filing suit.
Mass Tort Litigation Advantages
Mass tort litigation has several advantages over traditional class action suits:
- Mass torts are cost-effective for many plaintiffs who don’t have the financial means to hire an attorney in the typical fashion.
- With so many plaintiffs airing the same grievance against a defendant, the accused may be forced to settle the cases faster than waiting for a few individual trials to test the waters in court.
- Plaintiffs often don’t need to have an active role in litigation, easing them of the need for lengthy court appearances and other time-consuming responsibilities.
- Attorneys can often share the results of their investigations, resources, and even trial strategy, resulting in a more efficient and aggressive form of litigation.
- Plaintiff attorneys can pool financial resources to mount a case against the defendant’s attorneys. Since many tort cases are brought against multi-billion-dollar companies, mass torts help put the plaintiffs on equal footing in case proceedings.
These advantages can be especially useful considering the vast legal resources the attorneys of these large corporations have at their disposal.
How Long Does It Take to Settle a Mass Tort Case?
Although one of the advantages of joining a mass tort case is seeing a resolution much faster than a traditional court case, there is no guarantee of a specific timetable.
Some mass tort cases are resolved in a matter of months or a year or two. Other cases may take much longer. For example, some asbestos cases filed more than four decades ago are still pending in courtrooms today.
Get Help From Our Firm’s Mass Torts Attorneys Today
If you are one of many injured by the actions of a corporation, you do not need to face that company alone. When the actions of a company have injured many people, these plaintiffs may group together to file a mass tort, allowing them to confront large corporations from a position of collective strength.
A mass torts lawyer from our firm serving Lafayette could help you initiate this process or join an existing mass tort. Our team at Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers can work to discover the evidence that supports your case and file the necessary documentation to seek your damages.
Contact a team member today for more information in a free initial consultation.
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