Resolving the Class Action Crisis: Mass Tort Litigation as Network

Mass tort litigation as network provides a promising alternative to the unproductive path of personal-injury class actions for multiple-incident mass torts. Having developed over the last forty years, these networks of counsel, judges, and even clients are radically improving as a result of recent advances in information technology. They now provide efficient and effective adjudication of mass torts, and develop a market of claims that offers accurate settlement values for mass settlements. Interestingly, recent scholarship on the use of networks in international law has shown the development of similar networks, whereby government officials and subgroups have used decentralized networks, aided by information technology, to achieve global resolution of problems without the perceived drawbacks of global government.

The development of these similar approaches in disparate fields suggests that information technology holds the possibility for empowerment of individually focused methods of problem solving in multiple areas of the law. Mass tort litigation as network provides a potent example of the advantages of that approach.