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Injuries from environmental hazards can be devastating and wide-reaching, affecting thousands—sometimes millions—of individuals. Because of this, environmental litigation requires the utmost care and thoroughness to ensure victims are justly compensated not only for the suffering endured at the time of exposure, but also the burden of health problems they may be destined to bear for the rest of their lives. This Q&A explores the unique intricacies of environmental law and common ways environmental lawyers obtain compensation for their clients.
What is environmental law?
Environmental law can be described as a body of intertwining, overlapping and sometimes conflicting federal, state, and local laws and regulations designed to protect the air, soil, and water of the environment, as well as the health of people and their property from environmental hazards. Various federal, state, or local environmental health and safety agencies enforce these laws and, ideally, obtain compensation for injuries an individual may suffer, such as the loss of a loved one, lost wages, medical bills, or property damage.
What is mass tort?
A tort is a civil wrong that causes someone loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the party that inflicted the harm. Mass tort refers to loss or injury involving a large group of people. Mass tort cases in environmental law can involve injuries sustained from air pollution, hazardous waste, oil spills, nuclear plants, water contamination, soil contamination, fracking, PFOA contamination, and many other environmental hazards.
Mass tort cases are usually taken to court as a class action lawsuit.
What is a class action lawsuit?
A class action lawsuit is brought by one or more plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group of people referred to as a class. Classes generally have at least a few dozen members, but some can reach millions. Class action lawsuits may arise over any damage, from loss of property and environmental damage to defective products. Groups often file class-action lawsuits against private and public institutions, employers, and government entities.
One of the most prolific class action settlements in recent history was for victims of the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis. Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, as co-liaison and negotiating counsel in the Flint Water Litigation, secured a landmark $600 million settlement with the State of Michigan, the City of Flint, and other responsible parties on behalf of the citizens of Flint.
Class actions save time and resources because courts don’t have to hear a large number of single claims involving the same grievance. Most class action matters settle out of court. A major advantage of a class action lawsuit is that the class members don’t have to do anything to obtain a share of a settlement. Individuals of the same class may receive different amounts based on their length of exposure, type and severity of injury, age, and other factors. These settlements provide plaintiffs with valuable financial compensation and closure.
What is multi-district litigation (MDL)?
MDL is the process of consolidating civil suits that share one or more questions of fact (aka, questions that must be answered by a judge or jury) and transferring them to a single federal court. In MDL court, one judge manages the litigation during discovery and other pretrial matters. During this time, the MDL judge will try to work toward reaching a “global settlement” for all of the MDL cases. If a settlement is not reached, the case can be sent back to the original court for trial. Sometimes, the MDL court itself will conduct the trial. This is called a bellwether trial.
MDL saves money and judicial resources and makes the judicial process much more efficient. MDL is often seen with product liability cases and the opioid crisis. Notably, in 2021, Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik served as a top MDL attorney for plaintiffs Lake and Trumbull Counties and was instrumental in securing a $650 million settlement with defendants CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart in Ohio for their role in the opioid epidemic.
What is personal injury?
Personal injury encompasses every variety of injury to a person’s body, emotions, or reputation. These include pharmaceutical injuries, workers’ compensation, product liability, medical malpractice, auto accidents, construction accidents, nursing home abuse, wrongful death, catastrophic injuries, violent crime, and more.
Environmental law frequently overlaps with personal injury law. For example, a personal injury attorney specializing in environmental litigation can help secure compensation for someone suffering from cancer or other illnesses related to radiation exposure, such as residents living near the Nuclear Fuel Services facility in Erwin, Tennessee.
What is property damage?
Property damage, as the name suggests, is injury to real or personal property. A perfect example is the case of “Old Smokey,” a city incinerator located in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. For almost fifty years, Old Smokey spewed toxic ash on to the surrounding neighborhood. The ash would sometimes cause fires on residents’ roofs.
Despite closing by court order in 1970, no effort was made to clean up the contamination from Old Smokey. As a result, residents of Coconut Grove are still grappling with property damage and devastating health problems.
What is medical monitoring?
If an individual has been exposed to an environmental hazard, they are at increased risk of developing health problems associated with the hazard. This leads the individual to incur more costs from doctors’ visits to monitor their health for changes. Medical monitoring litigation seeks to recover compensation for these costs. As some conditions can take years to develop, a medical monitoring claim is a powerful tool for obtaining compensation sooner rather than later. Rather than seeking a lump-sum award for the plaintiffs; instead, a successful medical monitoring action establishes a fund for ongoing testing and medical evaluation. Another unique feature of a medical monitoring claim is that it does not require a plaintiff to show proof of present injury.
Napoli Shkolnik is currently litigating a class action medical monitoring suit for those who lived near the Grumman Northrop aerospace facility located in Bethpage, New York. Hundreds of chimneys on the facility expelled a fog of toxic emissions containing high levels of hexavalent chromium and trichloroethylene, both known carcinogens. Since there are no environmental markers that would suggest which chemicals were in the air, or in what concentrations, residents have no way of knowing their exact cancer risk; therefore, their best option is to carefully monitor their health, at great expense to them. Napoli Shkolnik’s class action will establish a fund to cover the associated costs.
As a plaintiff, environmental litigation may seem like a daunting uphill battle. Although this branch of law deals with powerful bureaucrats and red tape, partnering with an experienced environmental lawyer can secure life-changing settlements for all victims involved.