Research On Priority Of Compensation For Personal Injury In Mass Tort

Our existing bankruptcy law protects the personal injury compensation claims in mass tort in terms of common claims, which in fact is totally unprotected according to the actual results. Therefore, firstly, it is extremely urgent to change insolvency liquidation processes. That is to emphasize priority protection for personal injury compensation claims in mass tort. Meanwhile, both the extent of priority and the scope of priority compensation need to be taken into account. Secondly, due to the poor financial situation of bankruptcy enterprises, even if the priority protection is guaranteed, the situation that the victims cannot gain enough compensation still exists. Therefore, shall we consider innovating on the insolvency liquidation procedures by bringing in other systems to guarantee the victim’s absolute rights and interests in mass tort? At last, we will examine the combination of the introduced new system and the existing insolvency liquidation system to see if it will be inconsistent with the other high status law in our country.Compared with traditional tort, mass tort is the product of society development and has peculiar characteristics that traditional tort doesn’t have, which challenges the traditional tort theory. The peculiar legal nature of mass tort deprives of the applicability of traditional tort theory. According to the characteristics of mass tort, the theory basis of priority protection for personal injury compensation claims in mass tort should be considered mainly from two points of view:legal principle and social practice. In order to make priority protection for personal injury compensation claims in mass tort be accepted by common people, it is very necessary to make people know our country’s present treatment of mass tort. At present, our ways to deal with mass tort mainly through the government action, which reveals the limitation of our country’s regulations of personal injury compensation claims in mass tort:(1) misclassification of personal injury compensation claims in mass tort to common claims;(2) differential treatment between personal injury compensation claims in mass tort and that in common benefits debt;(3) the imperfection of confirmation system of bankruptcy creditor subject;(4) the absence of liability insurance and compensation fund system in our country’s bankruptcy law;(5) the unsound group litigation in our country;(6) the vacancy of bankruptcy exemption exception system in our country. Based on the above, we analyzed foreign countries’ treatments of mass tort in favor of our country’s localization of overseas experiences. In conclusion, we confirm the status of priority protection for personal injury compensation claims in mass tort, on the basis of which the extent of priority and the scope of priority compensation are also validated. In our opinion, the introduced systems are the complementary system for the personal injury compensation claims instead of the substitute for the responsibility of bankruptcy law.On the whole, this paper tries to confirm the necessity of priority protection for personal injury compensation claims in mass tort by analyzing its nature, legal principle and practice basis. Then it lists the treatments for mass tort at home and abroad, points out the shortcomings of our ways and localizes the foreign countries’ advanced experiences. At last, it brings in other legal systems to offer double protection, trying to guarantee the rights and interests of victims suffered from mass tort in insolvency liquidation.