You're hitting some good points Motley.  Most of these folks can't afford to pay attorneys by the hour and employ teams of expert witnesses at extensive cost.  Attorneys might not want to take these claims on a contingent fee basis and probably wouldn't want to advance the costs for expert witnesses since the damages for any one claimant are relatively modest.  If the claims went to trial the attorney time would likely be over 100 hours and maybe several hundred hours.  Any attorneys hired by an insurer for the owner would be paid by the hour as they performed work.  About the only way litigation would make sense would be some sort of class action suit with shared costs for the experts and attorneys.