"Mass torts" is an incredibly broad term that includes many disparate substantive areas—everything from an airplane accident that injures many individuals at once, to asbestos claims involving alleged exposure and injury over the course of many decades. This book aims to provide a useful guide that examines most phases of mass tort cases while appealing to attorneys of varying levels of experience in many different types of cases.

The book begins with a brief history of mass tort litigation, followed by chapters that discuss various stages of individual cases: preliminary considerations such as jurisdiction and venue, theories of liability and defenses, and mechanisms courts use to manage mass tort cases, including class actions and multi-district litigation. There are also chapters addressing discovery, experts and settlement—all in the specialized context of mass torts. Finally, the book explores some issues that arise at least somewhat uniquely in mass tort litigation.