New Voir Dire Question: Do You Own Shares in Any Lawsuit?
Mass tort litigation is big business. In the past, thanks to rules prohibiting fee sharing with non-lawyers, it was a big business in which only lawyers could participate. Not anymore; at least not if you're in private equity, a hedge fund or are a bank. All it takes is cash, high tolerance for risk and an appetite for big returns.
Today the NYTimes has an excellent (save for one common misperception) article on the subject: "Putting Money on Lawsuits, Investors Share in the Payouts". My quibble is with the claim that the money pouring into investments in contingent fee recoveries "... is helping to ensure that cases are decided by merit rather than resources ". It's not true and hasn't been for decades; at least not for the big dogs and not for mass tort cases. They already (a) have bigger and faster jets than the companies they're suing; (b) own or control their own banks; (c) only have to focus their efforts in one jurisdiction; and, (d) can readily syndicate really big cases within a network of very business savvy lawyers. Those entrepreneurial lawyers who started all this vowed long ago never to be outspent and I've yet to see it happen.
