The other Philip Morris cases involve plaintiffs seeking the recovery of health care costs, as well as tobacco prices and cigarette contraband.

The UNROW Clinic has exceptional experience with federal court and international litigation that involves multiple plaintiffs and factual complexities.

Since each case involves plaintiffs, defendants and lawyers on both sides, as well as administrative court staff, court officers, judges and jurors, several thousand people join the chaos each day in pursuit of justice.

As of Jan. 1, there were 29,466 cases in the Federal courts, but many of those cases involve multiple plaintiffs and defendants.

Civil rights groups were angered by the judge's comments in a 1987 that involved several black plaintiffs who sued the West Palm Beach Police Department after they were mauled by police dogs.

The current Rwandan Gacaca court system, as established in March 2001, involves both plaintiffs and witnesses in an interactive court proceeding against alleged criminals who took part in the genocide.

These cases involve plaintiffs who have suffered genuine damages, but the true culpability lies squarely with an individual or small entity who has very little money that could be collected if the suit was won.

The two unanimous decisions involved Jewish and Arab-American plaintiffs, but the Court said the law applied to any people subjected to intentional discrimination because of "their ancestry or ethnic characteristics."

In most employment-discrimination cases involving obese plaintiffs, courts have ruled that obesity is not a disability and that employers are free to discriminate against overweight people.

The West Virginia trial is unusual because it involves plaintiffs who argue that they were exposed to asbestos in different ways, Mr. Dellinger said.