Automated Causation System for Mass Tort Matters
Mass tort claims present counsel with daunting amounts of medical, exposure-related and legal data. To simplify in the management of such data, ICTM has trademarked its proprietary database management system, the Toxic Tort Solution System (T2S2). The T2S2 process is charted below in a flow diagram.
The T2S2:
- Automatically assesses general causation relationships;
- Algorithmically stratifies individual claimants in various ways, including potential damage value; and
- Significantly reduces the quantity of manual labor required to sort and categorize the relevant causation and damage value data.
As a result of this proprietary technology, the T2S2 is able to:
- Integrate the medical and scientific expertise of the ICTM experts experienced in causation assessment and mass tort issues with the most current, relevant scientific literature;
- Merge the relevant scientific literature, general causation assertions, and claimant specific medical and non-medical records in order to formulate a preliminary general causation assessment opinion;
- Differentiate a target population of claimants from the masses using scientific/medical support to guide focused, comprehensive analysis of those claimants.
The T2S2 is accessed through a secure extranet and has the ability to handle millions of pages of documents. Using the platform of a secure extranet environment, attorneys may review any or all components of the data and produce related analyses. In addition, such information can be made available to others, including co-counsel or expert witnesses, at the attorney’s discretion. The algorithmic system allows attorneys to determine on what relationships they would like to focus, whether those between claimant data and exposure, or claimant data and causation, in accordance with their priorities, and permits them to tailor the programming accordingly.
Law firm management consultant Edward Poll observed in his Attorney and Law Firm Guide to the Business of Law (ABA Publishing 2002): “When a firm offers an extranet to a client, the firm is saying the client is important enough for the firm to create a virtual office exclusively for this matter; and, as if that weren’t enough, it is also giving the client a virtual key to that office to come or go as he or she pleases.”
With the power of modern computing, adding analytical capacity to such a framework allows the attorney to rapidly assess the status of the claimant and to optimize all resources. Expert-provided analysis enables the very best collaborative work among all of the experts which mitigates damages and expedites the effective disposition of complex, multi-litigant, product liability claims.
