Choice of Law

Choice of Law in Mass Torts

Aside from jurisdiction and venue, a third procedural question that arises early in mass torts is which state’s law supplies the causes of action and other substantive rules that will apply. The practice of aggregating cases from multiple districts that individually would be subject to different state laws complicates an area of law that is already complicated, poorly understood, and seldom intuitive. For example, usually a federal court sitting in diversity applies the choice of law rules of the state where the case is filed. But when federal litigation has been aggregated in one court, cases may either be filed directly in that court or filed in a different federal court and then transferred to the multidistrict litigation court. The reality of mass tort litigation magnifies the difficulties of complex choice-of-law rules.