Common Benefit Fund
An assessment on recoveries that compensates leadership counsel for work benefiting all claimants.
Leadership counsel perform general causation development, expert work, and core discovery that benefits every claim in the litigation, including those handled by non-leadership firms. A common benefit assessment — a percentage holdback from recoveries — funds that work. Disputes over the assessment rate and its reach to non-participating firms are a recurring feature of large MDLs.
See also
- Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)Federal consolidation of related civil actions before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
- Common Fund DoctrineThe equitable principle allowing counsel who create a fund to be paid from it.
- Contingency FeeCounsel's fee taken as a percentage of recovery, payable only on success.
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