Glossary
A civil action brought by many plaintiffs against one or a few defendants for harm caused by a shared product, exposure, or course of conduct.
A mass tort is a category of civil litigation in which a large number of plaintiffs assert personal injury, wrongful death, economic, or environmental claims arising from a common product defect, environmental contamination, pharmaceutical adverse event, or course of conduct by a defendant. Each plaintiff maintains an individual case, but discovery, expert work, and pretrial rulings are commonly consolidated through Multidistrict Litigation in federal court or coordination proceedings in state court.