We’re already emails from flacks offering up experts to comment on the Vioxx settlment. One of the first to hit our in-box is commentary by Vanderbilt Law’s Richard Nagareda, who just published a book called “Mass Torts in a World of Settlement.” Nagareda argues that these mass-tort settlements have transformed the legal system so extensively that rival teams of lawyers function as sophisticated governing powers rather than litigators. On Vioxx, here’s his interesting take:

The $4.85 billion settlement announced that dawn by Merck in the Vioxx litigation shows, once again, that we truly are in a world of settlement when it comes to the resolution of mass personal injury lawsuits. Lawyers on both sides have put together a commerce transaction, with all the complexity, sophistication, and financial stakes of a corporate merger. That Merck has settled for just under $5 billion only a few years after analysts were predicting a cost of $10-25 billion from the

Vioxx litigation is a crucial fact that amply vindicates the level-headed management of that litigation by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon and the brawny trial strategy of Merck vice president Kenneth Frazier. After several actual trials, we have much more accurate picture of how much these claims are really worth. The big question now is whether the medical and exposure criteria set out in the settlement will work as anticipated, or whether the settlement will be deluged by doubtful claims in what I shout the ‘Field of Dreams’ problem: whether you build it, they will come.

If that doesn’t slake your thirst, here’s a link of an interview with Nagareda talking about mass torts.

Original post by Peter Lattman

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