Mass-tort inventory has become a tradeable asset, and the firms that acquire cases, whether through advertising, referral, or outright purchase of another firm's book, live or die on the quality of what they take in. A weak inventory does not just underperform. It ties up capital, consumes paralegal hours on cases that will never qualify, and drags down the settlement value of the strong claims it is bundled with. Case selection is the single highest-leverage decision in a mass-tort practice.
Qualify the Injury Before Anything Else
Every mass tort has a medical signature, and the first filter is whether a prospective client actually has it. That means pulling records early rather than relying on an intake questionnaire. A claimant who reports the right diagnosis but whose records show a competing cause, a pre-existing condition, or a missing exposure window is not a case, and finding that out after you have advanced costs is an expensive way to learn it.
- Diagnosis: confirm the specific injury the MDL or docket recognizes, not a close relative of it.
- Product and exposure proof: can the client document use of the specific product, device, or drug, and during the relevant period?
- Causation gaps: screen for alternative causes and comorbidities the defense will use to zero out the claim.
- Statute of limitations: confirm the claim is timely under the governing state law before you invest in it.
The firms that scale mass tort profitably build a medical-records review step into intake, staffed by people who know each docket's qualifying criteria. It is cheaper to reject a marginal case in week one than to carry it for two years and then watch it get cut at a settlement grid. Write the rejection criteria down and apply them consistently, because the pressure to hit signed-case targets will otherwise push weak files through the door.
Run the Per-Case Economics
Mass tort is a portfolio business, and the unit economics have to work at the level of the average case, not the headline verdict. Before committing to a docket, model the acquisition cost per case, the expected medical-records and expert spend, the projected settlement value net of common-benefit assessments, and the realistic timeline to resolution. A docket with a compelling liability story and a three-dollar-per-case net recovery is not a business.
Timeline is the variable firms underestimate most. Capital advanced today may not return for three to five years, and the carrying cost of that money is real. Firms funding inventory with litigation finance need to price the cost of capital directly into the selection decision, a discipline we return to in our practice operations coverage.
Vetting a Purchased Book
Buying another firm's inventory adds a layer of diligence. You are inheriting not just cases but the intake decisions, retainer agreements, and records that produced them. Sample the file quality before you agree on a price.
- Pull a random sample and check for signed, enforceable fee agreements and complete records.
- Verify the referral chain and that fee-sharing disclosures meet the governing rules of professional conduct.
- Assess how many cases are qualified versus merely signed, because a signed case that will not qualify is a liability, not an asset.
The gap between signed and qualified is where acquiring firms lose money. A book advertised as ten thousand cases may hold only a fraction that will survive a docket's proof-of-use and medical criteria.
Lien Exposure Is Part of Selection
The net-to-client number, and the firm's own return, depends on what comes off the top at disbursement. Dockets that skew toward Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, or claimants with heavy ERISA plan reimbursement, carry lien resolution costs that can swallow a modest settlement. Factoring lien density into case selection, not just injury severity, separates the firms that keep their fees from the ones that watch them evaporate at settlement. We cover that resolution work in depth in our liens and settlement reporting.
Selection Is a Repeatable System
The firms that win at mass tort treat selection as a documented process with defined criteria, not a gut call made deal by deal. Write down the qualifying medical criteria for each docket, the economic thresholds a case must clear, and the diligence steps for any purchased book, then hold intake to them. The discipline is what keeps a promising docket from becoming a capital sink. For how the underlying liability theories develop across product dockets, follow our product liability coverage.