Mass Tort Litigation

Mass tort litigation is the term used when many individual claims share a common factual core, often the same product, the same chemical exposure, or the same institution’s conduct. The claims usually stay separate lawsuits; what they share is coordination, most often a federal multidistrict proceeding created by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for pretrial purposes only.

This section collects our articles on those proceedings. Each article separates four things that are routinely blurred together in coverage: the allegations in the complaints, the regulatory record (label changes, recalls, agency findings), what a court or the parties have actually agreed or been ordered to do, and what remains unresolved.

Institutional abuse claims

Claims against institutions such as churches, dioceses and youth organisations follow a different path from product claims. State legislatures have changed the rules that once barred these claims, several institutions have reorganised under Chapter 11 and created survivor trusts, and the deadlines that decide whether a claim can still be filed are statutory rather than procedural. Those differences are set out in the individual articles:

• Illinois sexual abuse litigation covers the 2023 Illinois law and its retroactive window.
• Maryland child abuse litigation covers the 2023 statute, the constitutional challenge and the 2024 amendment.
• Boy Scouts abuse settlement covers the Chapter 11 case, the confirmed plan and the trust.
• LDS Church abuse litigation and Catholic Church abuse claims cover what has been filed and reported, and how diocesan bankruptcies are administered.

How to read these pages

If you are looking for a general explanation of the machinery before a specific case, start with How mass tort litigation works and MDL vs class action. If you are checking deadlines, read statutes of limitation in injury claims, which explains why a single national deadline almost never exists.