Mass Tort

A Mass Tort is a case where a large group of people suffer similar injuries by the same negligent act or defective product. For instance, thousands of people may be affected by a faulty product such as food or drug which may make them sick. Rather than filing individual claims, one claim can be filed to represent all of the affected people. This process can often be more efficient both for the legal system and the clients. Mass torts may include mass disaster torts, mass toxic torts, and product liability torts.

At Toral Garcia & Franz we have experience in handling mass tort and class action lawsuits. In the latter half of 2008, Toral Garcia & Franz settled tobacco claims for $12.3 million dollars.

As part of a class action settlement, tobacco companies paid $580 million dollars to resolve the claims of sick Florida smokers. The courts placed these funds in a trust, and the responsibility was placed on Florida attorneys to find and qualify the state’s smokers who were entitled to compensation for their injuries.

In an unprecedented campaign for our law firm, Toral Garcia & Franz reached out to more than 1,500 Florida smokers and assisted them in the qualification process. In order to qualify, individuals had to be Florida residents with a history of smoking who had been diagnosed with a tobacco-related illness prior to November 21, 1996.

Unfortunately, doctors and hospitals are only required to keep medical records for seven years, so many of the required documents for these individuals had been previously destroyed.

Through intensive investigations and research as well as continuous open lines of communication with our clients, the firm was able to locate most of the necessary medical documentation. As a result of our efforts we were able to qualify an extraordinary 80 percent of our clients for payments from the trust fund.