Grid Settlement

A grid settlement is a structured compensation framework used in mass tort global settlements that assigns each plaintiff to a predetermined payment tier based on objective criteria — typically injury severity, product exposure duration, age at diagnosis, and the presence of aggravating or mitigating factors. Grids eliminate the need for individual damages negotiation across thousands of claims, enabling efficient administration through a claims facility, but they also cap recovery for plaintiffs with outlier injuries who might have fared better in individual litigation. For litigation funders, the existence and terms of a negotiated settlement grid are a primary recovery modeling input — once a grid is agreed, recovery ranges for the funded claim cohort become much more predictable, allowing funders to mark their portfolios with higher confidence. Funders with large claim exposure in a docket sometimes negotiate to participate in grid design discussions through PSC relationships.

Once a settlement grid is negotiated, funders can mark their entire claim portfolio with materially higher confidence, because recovery ranges become a function of objective tier criteria rather than individual negotiation — this is typically the point at which a funder's internal valuation shifts from a probability-weighted range to a near-deterministic estimate. Funders with large claim exposure sometimes seek influence over grid design through PSC relationships specifically because the tier boundaries and criteria directly determine how their funded claimants are categorized.