You may have heard “mass tort” or “class action” and wondered whether they are the same thing. They are similar — each helps a large group of injured people seek compensation in a lawsuit — but they are distinct case types. The main difference is the plaintiff’s degree of control over their own case.
What are class actions?
A class action is a lawsuit led by a small subset of a larger class of plaintiffs. The class representative — a single plaintiff or small group whose claims are identical or substantially similar to the rest of the class — leads the case, and individual class members have no control over how the lawsuit progresses.
Class actions typically involve injury claims that span hundreds or thousands of people. Common examples include:
- Dangerous drug lawsuits
- Defective product cases
- Toxic exposure lawsuits, such as asbestos litigation
- Data breach lawsuits
For example, if a pharmaceutical company develops a dangerous drug that injures thousands of people, those people can join as a class to seek compensation together rather than filing individual lawsuits alone.
Requirements for class actions
Forming a class action involves specific and highly complicated requirements. Class actions are typically governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or state-specific civil procedure rules — in federal court, Rule 23 sets out how to form and manage a class action. Some of the primary requirements include:
- The class is large enough that individual lawsuits would be impractical
- The legal issues are common among the class members
- The class representatives share the claims and defenses of the class
- The class representatives can adequately protect the interests of the members
What are mass torts?
A mass tort also helps a large group of plaintiffs, but it works very differently — it is closer to a typical negligence or personal injury lawsuit. Mass torts usually involve a large number of plaintiffs in the same geographic area, and while they always involve multiple plaintiffs, they may target a single defendant or several defendants depending on the facts. They generally stem from some act of misconduct or negligence and seek compensation for similar injuries arising from the same cause or event.
How do mass torts work?
Mass tort cases begin as individual lawsuits filed by multiple plaintiffs. When their claims are identical or substantially similar, a court may combine them into a single mass tort to streamline the litigation and conserve judicial resources. The logic is simple: if each plaintiff’s case involves much of the same investigation and legal claims, it makes sense to combine those efforts, reducing time and cost for plaintiffs, defendants, and the court alike.
If the plaintiffs come from multiple jurisdictions — different states, for example — the case may be combined into multidistrict litigation (MDL), which places the lawsuit in a single court empowered to handle cases from across the country. This is especially common in defective product lawsuits.
Differences between class actions and mass torts
The primary difference is how the group of plaintiffs is handled. A class action combines every plaintiff into one group represented by the class representative, whose settlement, dismissal, and litigation choices bind everyone. Class members then share in the total settlement, divided according to the rules of the lawsuit.
A mass tort, by contrast, keeps each plaintiff distinct. Even after consolidation, every plaintiff must prove their own case and maintain individual control over their lawsuit. Mass torts are often used precisely when a class action is not appropriate — for instance, when plaintiffs have different defenses or causes of action arising from the same event.
Both involve multiple plaintiffs, but mass torts usually involve fewer than class actions. A class action can reach into the millions of people; a mass tort typically involves hundreds to a few thousand. Choosing the right strategy depends on the specific facts, and an experienced injury lawyer can explain which approach fits your situation.