I picked up John Grisham's "The King of Torts" in the airport last weekend, and read it pretty much in a few hours. The entire mass-tort industry is just a machine, and they have very deep pockets from which to fund this.

I tend to buy sides from both arguments in these scenarios. First, the insane riches a mass tort firm can garner from class-action suits is obscene. The percentages they can make on class-action suits are too high, and should be limited by law somehow. Don't limit what the plaintiffs (victims) can win -- limit what the trial lawyers can get. Relate it to hours spent on the case, or as a much smaller percentage than a lawyer who represents a single client can earn. There simply is no good argument when a single firm could earn three quarters of a billion dollars in the tobacco settlements.

Mass torts is where this is heading. I personally think it's absurd to blame McDonald's for your obesity, but that's the world we live in. Someone will win a single case, then class-action suits will start. Those are where the big money is for trial lawyers, and where the most abusive, costly litigation is for consumers and companies. Our current laws are there maily to enrich the mass tort industry, not protect consumers.