Mass Tort Deals

'In Mass Tort Deals, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch exposes the corrupt inner workings of multi-district litigation to the light of day. By bringing both the fly's eye for detail and the eagle's eye for grand design to bear on mass tort settlements, she shows how repeat-playing plaintiffs' attorneys and defendants operating in the near-absence of rules use the MDL to enrich themselves, while judges, who care mainly about establishing reputations as settlement facilitators, tolerate and even encourage conduct they ought to condemn. If federal judges ever look back with shame upon their actions, which fostered a Wild West of litigation in which lawlessness enabled self-interested plaintiffs' lawyers and defendants to enrich themselves at the expense of injured claimants, Professor Burch will deserve much of the credit.' Charles M. Silver, Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair in Civil Procedure, University of Texas 'Mass Tort Deals is terrific - one of the most important books to come out about the American tort system in recent memory. The stories Burch tells are riveting, sometimes shocking. The book combines groundbreaking empirical research with clear writing and it is easy to see why she is outraged at much of what she finds. Her sharp analysis lays bare the problems and successes of the billion dollar deals that resolve large scale harms, and she provides serious proposals for fixing what's wrong with the system. Critics and proponents of the tort system alike - not only lawyers! - should read this book.' Alexandra Lahav, Ellen Ash Peters Professor, University of Connecticut and author of In Praise of Litigation