Most of the federal product liability surge came from just three mass products

Evidence

The strongest evidence supporting this claim is the astronomical increase in product liability suits in federal courts: from fewer than 2,000 in 1974 to more than 31,000 by 2002. But much of this increase was tied to suits involving three products (asbestos, the Dalkon Shield, and Bendectin), so there was no dramatic across-theboard increase in litigation. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3508

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the course theme that aggregate litigation statistics can mislead about underlying trends.