Class action vs. mass tort: which kind of case fits your injury?

How the two differ, in brief

There are three main ways a product injury case can move through the courts.

• A class action is one case. A few people, called class representatives, sue on behalf of everyone in a defined group.
• A mass tort is many separate cases handled together. In federal court, this usually happens through multidistrict litigation, or an MDL.
• An individual lawsuit is one person’s own case, in one court, on its own schedule.

Injury claims often vary from person to person. That is why most physical injury claims proceed as mass torts or individual suits, not class actions. Your lawyer decides which path fits your case. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Side-by-side comparison

	Class action	Mass tort (MDL)	Individual lawsuit
Legal basis (federal)	Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23	28 U.S.C. § 1407	Ordinary state or federal suit
How many cases	One case for the whole class	Many separate cases in one court	One case
Who leads	Class representatives and class counsel	Court-appointed leadership, plus each person’s lawyer	Your lawyer
Must you prove your own damages?	No; the case proceeds as one representative case	Yes	Yes
How it ends	A settlement needs court approval as “fair, reasonable, and adequate”	Individual or group settlements, or trials after cases return home	Settlement, trial or dismissal
Typical fit	Many people with similar losses, such as economic loss	Physical injuries that vary too much for a class	A single injury, or product types with no MDL
Current product example	Proposed Roundup class settlement (Missouri state court)	Hair relaxer MDL 3060	Pressure cooker injury suits

Class actions under Rule 23

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 sets the rules for class actions in federal court. Under Rule 23(a), representatives may sue for a class only if four things are true:

1. The class is so large that joining everyone in one suit is impractical.
2. The class shares common questions of law or fact.
3. The claims of the representatives match those of the class as a whole.
4. The representatives will fairly and adequately protect the class.

A class case can settle only with court approval. Under Rule 23(e), the judge must find the deal “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”

Class actions often fit claims where everyone lost something similar, such as money. In the Chapman v. Tristar case, a nationwide class settlement covered pressure cooker buyers. Critics valued it at about $1 million to consumers, mostly in coupons and warranty extensions, against about $2 million in class counsel fees. The Sixth Circuit rejected Arizona’s bid to void it.

Example: the Roundup class settlement

The Roundup litigation shows how a class settlement works for injury claims. As of October 2026:

• The deal. On Feb. 17, 2026, Monsanto filed a proposed nationwide class settlement of up to $7.25 billion in St. Louis. It pays capped annual amounts over up to 21 years.
• Who is covered. People exposed before mid-February 2026 who are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma now or within 16 years of approval.
• Opt-outs. June 4, 2026 was the last day to opt out or object. If opt-outs pass a set level, Bayer may walk away from the deal.
• Court review. Judge Timothy Boyer granted preliminary approval on March 4, 2026. A federal judge sent the case back to state court in June 2026 after objectors tried to move it. The fairness hearing was held on Sept. 14, 2026. No final ruling had been reported as of mid-October 2026.
• Concerns. In May 2026, federal MDL Judge Vince Chhabria questioned whether the deal can bind out-of-state users and people not yet diagnosed. He declined to block it.

The settlement runs alongside the federal Roundup MDL (MDL 2741), which had 1,104 pending cases as of Oct. 1, 2026. People outside the class can still bring their own cases. A St. Louis trial on design-defect theories, brought by three women outside the class, began on Sept. 29, 2026.

The Supreme Court’s June 2026 Durnell decision also matters. It held that federal pesticide law preempts state failure-to-warn claims that would require a cancer warning on the Roundup label. It did not address other theories, such as design defect.

Mass torts and MDLs under 28 U.S.C. § 1407

A mass tort is a large group of injury cases against the same company over the same product. Each person keeps an individual claim and must prove their own damages.

In federal court, these cases are often combined through an MDL. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1407, cases with common questions of fact pending in different districts can be transferred to one court. That court handles pretrial work for all of them, such as discovery and rulings on the science. Each case is then sent back to its home district at or before the end of pretrial proceedings.

Court-appointed leadership lawyers handle shared tasks. Your own lawyer still handles your claim.

Example: the hair relaxer MDL

The hair relaxer litigation is the fourth-largest pending MDL in federal court.

Fact	Detail
Case name	In re Hair Relaxer Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL 3060
Court and judge	U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois; Judge Mary M. Rowland
Formed	February 2023
Pending cases	12,381 as of Oct. 1, 2026 (fourth-largest pending MDL)
First bellwether trial	Set for Sept. 7, 2027, according to a docket tracker
Settlement	No global settlement announced as of October 2026

Bellwether trials are early test cases. Their results help both sides judge what other cases may be worth.

Individual lawsuits

Some products never get an MDL or a class action. Each injured person files their own case.

Pressure cookers are an example. No MDL or nationwide class action exists for pressure cooker injuries. A Law Street Media study counted 292 federal pressure cooker suits filed from 2019 to January 2024. Of the cases that had ended, most (133) settled out of court.

An individual case moves on its own schedule, built around your facts.

Which one applies to you?

You usually do not pick the type of case on your own. It depends on the product, the kind of harm, and what other cases already exist.

1. Physical injury from a product with an MDL: your lawyer will likely file a case that joins the MDL.
2. A class settlement that covers you: read the notice and ask a lawyer before the opt-out deadline passes.
3. A product with no group case: your lawyer files an individual lawsuit.

Deadlines still apply in every type of case. See product liability deadlines, and talk to a lawyer about your state’s deadline. For what claims can be worth, see product liability settlements. For the basics, start with the product liability guide.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.