The transferee court orders that a percentage of each claimant's recovery be withheld and deposited into a fund compensating leadership for common benefit work such as general discovery, expert development, and bellwether preparation.
Assessments commonly range in the single digits as a percentage of gross recovery, and allocation among leadership firms is determined by the court, often with a special master.
Alternative Names:
Common Benefit Assessment, CBF
Why it Matters?
The fund is what makes MDL leadership economically viable, since common work benefits thousands of claimants whose individual counsel contributed nothing to it. It also creates friction, since firms that developed cases independently object to funding work they did not use. For defendants the fund is mostly relevant in structuring settlements, since holdback provisions affect net claimant recovery and therefore participation.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How is the common benefit fund funded?
Does it reach state court cases?
