ABSTRACT
Toxic tort plaintiffs often face substantial legal, scientific, and economic obstacles in bringing a successful case. This chapter focuses on major developments in mass exposure cases to explore the extent to which toxics litigation has been overwhelming the court system, and to highlight emerging trends in case management. It examines the common law causes of action potentially available to toxic tort plaintiffs. The chapter concludes with a discussion of recurring issues raised in latent injury cases and the emerging trends attempting to address them. It examines the common law causes of actions for personal injuries allegedly caused by toxic substance exposure. Products liability is a rule of law holding manufacturers or suppliers of defective products strictly liable for harm resulting from a defective product. Monetary damages for personal and property losses resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals are difficult to recover in private “toxic tort” suits at common law.
