Class Action and Mass Tort Law

Affecting the Many

You or your loved one’s injuries are serious, but there just isn’t enough money to hire a lawyer. However, you see on television and learn from your neighbors that there are many others suffering with the same injuries. At that point, your search for a class action lawyer begins, and that’s where Chad Pinkerton steps in.

Whether it is a suit against a company that made misleading statements about their drug or a suit by employees against a company for illegal hiring or salary practices, Chad Pinkerton can help you become part of a class action suit. This type of suit allows those wronged to join forces and resources and sue a company to seek compensation for any injuries suffered. This process reduces the number of individual suits brought for similar injuries against the same company.

The suit is a complex one that involves many steps. The case can be brought in State or Federal Court and is filed against a company by one or more plaintiffs (people suing) on behalf of a proposed class. One of the first things that happens in the suit is that the representative of the class moves the court to certify the class. The class of people must include enough people (usually 40 or more) with common injuries suffered in a similar fashion.

The plaintiffs (people suing) have to show that the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiffs and that the defendant failed to fulfill its obligations to the plaintiffs, and that this failure was the proximate cause of the plaintiffs’ injuries.

Typical Class Action Lawsuits

Some of the most typical situations where you will find class action suits are: securities fraud, defective or dangerous products, environmental contamination, employment and pay practices, consumer fraud, unfair insurance practices, and fraudulent practices pertaining to banking, credit cards, utilities, healthcare, leases, collections, mortgages, and financing.

Mass Torts

A tort is a wrongdoing. Mass tort cases are similar to class actions suits in that there are several similar cases tried together against one entity. The difference is that in a mass tort suit, the court does not lump the plaintiffs all together but sees each case as an individual case.
If you or your loved one suffered an injury, it is important that you contact a competent attorney in order to decide if your injury falls within an existing or proposed class action or mass tort lawsuit. It is important that you seek compensation so that you may secure a positive future – financially and medically – and so companies can be taught lessons for positive change.

Money Damages and Statute of Limitations

Financial recovery can include present and future medical bills. Other potential areas of compensation, depending on the facts of the situation, are mental pain and suffering damages, lost past and future wages, permanent impairment/disfigurement, punitive damages, wrongful death damages and loss of enjoyment of life.
The cause of action is usually one based in negligence, and the statute of limitations for suing someone in Texas for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of injury or accident.
Finding the right lawyer is the key to your being able to recover compensation for your injuries so that this one accident does not determine your financial or medical status for years to come.

“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
Indianapolis v. Chase Nation Bank