Legal Lingo 101: We’re Keeping It Simple.

5 Legal Terms You Can Own.

If you recently joined a mass tort case, you’ve probably already heard a few terms that feel like they belong in a law textbook. SOL? MDL? DISCOVERY? Why does it feel like the legal world speaks its own language, making the process feel confusing or overwhelming?

Why do lawyers have to throw around big confusing words that just intimidate normal people?

Mm. The thing is, those words are not unnecessary or thrown around just to intimidate regular people. Sure, the legal world has its own language, but only because it serves the purpose at hand: pursuing justice in your lawsuit.

We want to empower women so that they – you – understand what’s happening + you are equipped to ask mindful questions about your case. When you familiarize yourself with a little legal lingo, the terms won’t sound like hot air and they’ll become yours too.

How About Just 5 Common Mass Tort Terms?

MASS TORT

Tort is French for wrongdoing. When a civil lawsuit involves multiple (mass) plaintiffs who suffered a similar injury from the same root cause, aka, a wrongful act committed by one or more corporations or institutions, it’s called a mass tort.

Mass torts are different from class action lawsuits, however, even though they’re both about mass wrongdoing. In the first (mass tort), each plaintiff’s circumstances are considered individually on their own merit and defended per plaintiff by a dedicated lawyer, whereas in a class action the group is treated exactly the same from start to finish.

In a successful outcome, mass torts weigh factors like severity of harm, age, preexisting conditions, medical prognosis, and impact on existing lifestyle when determining financial awards, which are typically far more to write home about than in a class action.

Mass torts tend to focus on case areas like defective products + medical devices, toxic substances, or even institutionalized sexual assault when it’s identified to be systemic (think Uber sexual assault and Roblox sexual exploitation). Bottom line: a mass tort doesn’t come into play for a one-off situation.

PLAINTIFF

Plaintiffs (aka, complainants) are regular people – you – who are complaining about a wrongdoing.

DEFENDANT

If you were harmed by an individual, institution, or manufacturer – the BIG BAD group responsible is called the defendant because it must defend itself against your accusations.

DISCOVERY

A pretrial court process called discovery allows plaintiffs and defendants to trade “details of fact” – to discover + gather evidence about each other. This step would be incredibly labor intensive if compiled plaintiff by plaintiff, but the court system has designed ways to get around this obstacle in large cases where the charges and injuries are similar (see number 5).

MDL (MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION)

MDL is short for multidistrict litigation, which is a legal convention sometimes permitted in large cases to merge together lawsuits from many plaintiffs in many states, all hurt by the same or similar grievance, into one. Sometimes they’re held in a federal court + sometimes in a single appointed state court, but in either case there is only one judge appointed and, wherever they happen, MDLs save a ton of money and time. (Think: a large number of women are hurt in a similar way by a defective product). MDLs must be requested + approved by a federal judicial group in Washington, DC, called the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation/ JPML.

MDLs also come in handy because they avoid duplication + help avoid contrary rulings, thereby moving the case faster toward a resolution.

Remind Me, Why Is This So Important?

Knowledge is power. We want you to have more of it, because the more power you have the less intimidated you are likely to feel. Stay tuned for more legal lingo coming soon in small batches. And by the way, uh-uh, you’re not expected to become a legal expert.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, too. You can educate yourself about more legal definitions at our legal glossary.

Sources
Wex Legal Dictionary, LII (Legal Information Institute), Cornell Law School, current.