Mass Tort: What Is It And How Does It Affect Your Family's Theme Park Accident Case?
If you, your spouse and children sustain injuries in a theme park accident, contact a personal injury lawyer, like those at The Law Offices of Gregg Durlofsky, immediately. When multiple individuals are injured in a single accident, they can sue the guilty party in a mass tort case. Mass tort describes a legal case involving two or more people. Here's how mass tort works and how it affects your family's accident case.
What's Mass Tort?
Mass tort is similar to a class action suit, but there are several big differences between the two. With class action suits, your entire family sues the guilty party together in court. Once your family wins the case, the court gives each person equal settlement amounts. In the case of a mass tort case, each person has the right to sue the guilty party individually for a compensation amount higher than the rest of the family members.
Your personal injury attorney needs to address the accident as a whole before establishing individual cases. This means investigating the accident scene, gathering clues and evidence, and establishing a case against the guilty party.
After completing the steps above, the attorney examines each family member's injuries to determine how to proceed with the mass tort case. If your kids' injuries are more serious than you or your spouse's injuries, the attorney may ask for a higher individual settlement for your children.
It's important that every family member sees the right doctors for their ages and injuries.
Do You and Your Spouse See the Same Doctors as Your Kids?
A pediatric doctor should complete the medical exams of your children, and you and your spouse should see a general practitioner or specialist. Because of their ages and bodies' needs, your kids require specialized equipment to determine the extent of their injuries.
For instance, if your children's doctor notes internal bleeding in their abdominal region, the doctor uses diagnostic imaging tools with lower doses of radiation to locate the injury. The lower doses of radiation protect your child from burns, cancer and other hazards.
In addition, your attorney separates the expenses of the adults' medical care from the kids' treatments to determine the correct amount of compensation for each person they represent. This is where mass tort comes in to play. The attorney adds the different medical expenses to your family's individual cases and presents them to the court during trial.
It may take some time before the mass tort case completes. If there are more than one individual personal injury cases in the mass tort case, it can take longer. Your attorney will discuss the specifics of your mass tort case and subsequent individual cases with you.
If you have questions about mass tort or need representation, contact your personal injury lawyer today.
Share