Plain-language legal terms
Litigation glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms that shape a case, docket, or settlement process.
A
B
Bar Date
A bankruptcy-court deadline after which new claims against the debtor are barred. When an institution files Chapter 11 — as many dioceses have — the bar date becomes one of the hardest, most real deadlines in civil law.
Bellwether Trial
A test case selected from an MDL and tried to verdict so both sides learn what juries do with the evidence. The verdict binds only that plaintiff — its real function is pricing the entire docket for settlement talks.
C
Census Registry
A court-created holding system in some MDLs where claims are registered and counted without being formally filed. It preserves claims and gives the court a docket-wide census — 3M's held over 180,000 claims at its peak.
Common Benefit Fund
A court-ordered holdback — typically 3% to 11% of every recovery in an MDL — that pays the leadership attorneys who do the shared work. It comes out of recoveries on top of your own lawyer's contingency fee.
Consent Certificate (TrustedForm)
A third-party recording that proves you agreed to be contacted when you submitted a form — capturing the page, the consent language, and the moment. The lead industry's receipt system.
Contingency Fee
A fee arrangement where the lawyer is paid a percentage of any recovery — commonly 33% to 40% in injury cases — and nothing if the case recovers nothing. Arrangements vary by firm and state; get yours in writing.
D
E
Elective Option (Camp Lejeune)
A fixed-payment settlement track the government created for Camp Lejeune claims: $100,000 to $450,000 by disease tier and exposure length, plus $100,000 for wrongful death. Accepting it resolves the claim without litigation.
Exclusive Remedy (Workers' Comp)
The workers'-compensation bargain: guaranteed no-fault benefits in exchange for losing the right to sue your employer. Third-party claims — against equipment makers or subcontractors — escape it.
G
J
JPML Transfer Order
The order that creates or expands an MDL — moving cases from courts around the country to the transferee judge. It marks the moment scattered lawsuits become coordinated litigation.
Judgment Preservation Insurance (JPI)
Insurance that protects a won judgment against reversal on appeal — premiums run roughly 5% to 15% of the covered amount. A boom product of the 2020s that suffered spectacular losses when big judgments reversed.
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML)
The seven-judge federal panel that decides whether related lawsuits across districts become an MDL, and which judge runs it. It publishes monthly statistics on every active MDL — the closest thing mass torts have to a scoreboard.
L
Lexecon Rights
Your right, from a 1998 Supreme Court case, to have your MDL case tried in the district where it was filed rather than by the MDL judge. Bellwether trials happen in the MDL court only when parties waive these rights.
Litigation Funding
Outside capital invested in lawsuits or law firms in exchange for a share of recoveries. A multi-billion-dollar industry — including roughly $2 billion committed to Camp Lejeune firms alone — that most claimants never see.
Loss of Consortium
A claim by the spouse (in some states, family) of an injured person for the loss of companionship, support, and services caused by the injury — a separate claim riding alongside the injured person's.
M
Managed Services Organization (MSO)
A corporate structure that lets outside investors own the business side of a law practice — staffing, marketing, technology — in states where non-lawyers can't own firms directly.
Master Complaint
A single consolidated complaint filed in an MDL that carries the allegations common to every case, so individual plaintiffs can join by filing only a short form with their personal facts.
Medical Lien
A legal claim against your settlement by whoever paid for your injury-related care — Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers, or hospitals. Liens are paid out of your recovery before you are.
Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)
A federal procedure that transfers lawsuits sharing common facts to one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. Each case remains a separate lawsuit — an MDL is coordination, not a merger, and not a class action.
P
Ping-Post Lead Routing
The real-time auction behind 'get a free case review' forms: the lead is offered ('pinged') to buyers with limited info, sold ('posted') to the accepting buyer, and routed within seconds.
Plaintiff Fact Sheet (PFS)
A standardized questionnaire every MDL plaintiff must complete — product use, medical history, damages — that substitutes for individualized early discovery. Miss its deadlines and a case can be dismissed.
Plaintiffs' Steering Committee (PSC)
The group of attorneys a court appoints to run the common work of an MDL — discovery, experts, bellwethers, and settlement talks — on behalf of all plaintiffs, funded by the common benefit fund.
Punitive Damages
Damages awarded to punish egregious conduct rather than compensate injury — the source of headline mass-tort verdicts, and the portion most often reduced on appeal.
Q
R
S
Settlement Factoring
Selling your future structured-settlement payments to a company for immediate cash — almost always at a steep discount. Effective rates around 20% are common, and a court must approve every transfer.
Short-Form Complaint
An abbreviated filing used in MDLs: the master complaint carries the common allegations once, and each plaintiff files a short form with their individual facts. It's how MDLs make six-figure dockets administratively possible.
Statute of Limitations (SOL)
The legal deadline for filing a claim, set by each state. In mass torts the clock often starts at discovery of the injury's link to the product — and revival windows, tolling, and registries can reopen or pause it.
Structured Settlement
A settlement paid as a stream of future payments through an annuity instead of one lump sum. For physical-injury claims the payments are entirely income-tax-free — including the growth.
T
Texas Two-Step
A strategy where a company facing mass claims spins its liabilities into a new subsidiary that immediately files bankruptcy — attempting to cap and channel the claims while the parent keeps operating.
Tolling Agreement
A contract that pauses the statute-of-limitations clock on a claim without filing a lawsuit. Firms use tolling agreements to hold large claim inventories unfiled — legally alive but not yet on any court's docket.