Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:12:30.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Quid Pro Quo Arrangements?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2019

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access

Summary

Chapter 2 poses three provocative questions: Do plaintiffs’ lawyers in leadership profit from quid pro quo arrangements with one another and with repeat defense attorneys? Even if one can fairly characterize features of their deals as self-serving, what harm is there? And if the deals do harm plaintiffs in some way, what leverage do plaintiffs have? In many respects, outsiders can only guess at the answers to the first two questions because they are privy neither to the negotiations nor to the private settlement’s payouts. But there is not a complete void; this chapter grounds its suppositions in the available data on the common-benefit fees that lead plaintiffs’ attorneys receive, and the private settlements they negotiate. Examining settlements that occurred over a 12-year span, every deal featured at least one “closure” provision for defendants (that helped end the lawsuits by goading plaintiffs to take the deal), and likewise contained some provision that increased lead plaintiffs’ lawyers’ common-benefit fees. Based on that evidence (along with the scant evidence on payouts to plaintiffs), there is reason to worry that when insiders play for rules, the rules they develop may principally benefit them at the plaintiffs’ expense.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mass Tort Deals
Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation
, pp. 35 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×