When companies manufacture, distribute and market products that cause harm, injured victims and their families can take their claim to the court system for recourse.
A hurt person can bring an action known as a tort to obtain compensation for damages. A tort is a type of civil action, as opposed to a criminal action. The person who sues is known as the plaintiff, and the company or person being sued is known as the defendant. In general, for a tort to succeed, three basic things must be true.
- First of all, someone suffered an injury that led to costs. For instance, if a mother had to be hospitalized for ventricular fibrillation, or a baby was born with a malformed kidney, the court would definitely consider the victim “injured.”
- Some person or entity (like a company, such as Abbott Laboratories) directly or indirectly caused that injury as a result of negligence, carelessness or other wrongdoing.
- The entity responsible has money to pay for the damages. A source of funds is of importance. By contrast, imagine a situation in which a drunk driver with no insurance or assets causes a serious car wreck. A lawsuit might not be feasible, if the driver has no way to provide any compensation. In testosterone cases, however, this last constraint is not a problem, considering that companies like Abbott Laboratories have many billions of dollars.
When a lot of different people suffer similar harm from similar causes, they can combine their torts into what’s known as a mass tort. These plaintiffs can combine forces to sue one or several defendants. To pursue a mass tort action, plaintiffs have to ask the court for permission. The court will decide based on factors like:
- How many plaintiffs got hurt;
- Where the plaintiffs live (are they close to each other or far apart?);
- The nature of the injures (are they similar or not?);
- Whether a single cause or set of causes was likely responsible for the damages.
In our next post we will discuss the difference between a mass tort and a class action lawsuit.
If you would like to explore the possibility of bringing legal action to obtain compensation for medical problems, deaths or other issues related to Low T medications, please contact the experienced attorneys at Marc Whitehead & Associates, LLP at (855)-423-3666 to discuss your options.
For more information regarding the use of Low T drugs, please visit www.usacivialaction.com and download a copy of our free E-book, The Fall of Testosterone: How a Vaunted “Low T” Therapy Has Backfired and Put Millions of Men at Risk for Heart Problems and Stroke.