Group and Aggregate Litigation in the United States

• Author: Nicholas M. Pace
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Date: 01 March 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716208328881
• Subject Matter: Articles

32 ANNALS, AAPSS, 622, March 2009

While a class action such as one brought under Federal

Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 23 is certainly the most

well-known mechanism for aggregating large numbers

of similar claims, other approaches include mass join-

der of parties, mass consolidation of separate cases, or

“multidistrict litigation” transfer of federal cases from

across the country into a single action for pretrial pro-

cessing; corporate reorganizations under the U.S.

Bankruptcy Code; large-scale inventories of clients

controlled by a single attorney; government-initiated

enforcement actions; and “private attorneys general”

litigation brought on behalf of the general public.

Keywords: class actions; aggregate litigation; group liti-

gation; representative litigation; consolida-

tions joinder; multidistrict litigation (MDL)

1. Overview of Your Country’s

Legal System

The United States is a common law country,

though legislatively enacted statutes, regulations

promulgated by administrative agencies, and the

provisions of state and federal constitutions also

play important roles in the development of both

substantive and procedural law. Most serious

civil and criminal cases are heard in the trial-

level courts of general jurisdiction in the federal

system and in the individual states, though there

are specialized courts of limited jurisdiction.

Regulatory disputes are adjudicated in some-

what less formal administrative hearings.

In the civil courts of general jurisdiction,

the role of judges in the litigation process has

Group and

Aggregate

Litigation in the

United States

By

NICHOLAS M. PACE

Nicholas M. Pace is a staff behavioral scientist at the

RAND Institute for Civil Justice in Santa Monica,

California.

NOTE: The author acknowledges and appreciates the

support of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) in

the development of this Country Report. Additional

information about the ICJ can be found at http://www

.rand.org/icj/.

DOI: 10.1177/0002716208328881