Mass tort class actions: What defendants have and plaintiffs don't

Defendants litigate common questions in mass tort claims from the posture o f a de facto class action, allowing them to exploit economies of scale. In contrast, plaintiffs' claims are rarely 100% aggregated, preventing plainti ffs from making the optimal investment in common questions to maximize the aggregate and individual value of their claims. This Essay explains the adv antages of scale economies and discusses the social costs of the systemic b ias favoring defendants over plaintiffs. The author argues that this system ic bias can be corrected through mass tort class actions.