You’ve probably seen ads and commercials that say, “If you’ve been victimized, you could be sued for compensation.”
In a nutshell, this is what most people think of when they hear the term “class action lawsuit.” But let’s dig deeper.
What is a class action lawsuit?
In its simplest form, a class action lawsuit is when a group of people (plaintiffs) sue together as one group, or when one person sue on behalf of a group.
In legal terms, a class action is a “procedural device that allows one or more plaintiffs to sue and prosecute on behalf of a larger group or ‘class.’ Legal Information Institute.
There are two main reasons for this. Our courts allow it for a simple reason. Imagine a class action lawsuit involving 100 people. If a court were to hear all similar cases against the same defendant, it would be completely bound.
Second, class actions allow individuals to band together against defendants with great wealth and power, helping to even the scales of justice a little more evenly. In this scenario, imagine an average middle-class family who has been wronged by a multi-billion dollar corporation. Generally speaking, families do not have the resources to have any hope of success. But the hundreds of plaintiffs have far more power than that.
The Legal Information Institute summarizes: “Simply put, this device allows each class member (individuals who have suffered the same wrongful injury at the hands of the defendant) to participate in a lawsuit that would otherwise be unmanageable. Deaf litigation can be controlled by the court as a named plaintiff.”
There is some types of class actionsBut most people are probably familiar with hazardous materials class actions.
How many people are needed in a class action lawsuit?
This is a trick question. We often see ads promoting large groups, but the real answer is “it depends.”
In some cases, a single individual is permitted to bring a class action lawsuit. on behalf of A group to which the members of a class belong insofar as they “share common questions of law or fact.” But many law firms warn that federal courts are unlikely to approve class-action lawsuits with fewer than a few dozen plaintiffs.
On the other hand, there is no theoretical limit to the number of people who can participate in a class action lawsuit.
How does a class action lawsuit work?
Class action law has evolved over the past several decades. However, there are specific rules binding on class actions known as Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Legal Information Institute indicates that a court must find out in order to authorize a class action lawsuit:
- Due to the large number of class members, it is not practical to participate in the action
- Collective participants’ claims share a common question of law or fact
- The claims or defenses of proposed class representatives are typical of the claims or defenses of the remaining members of the class;
- The proposed class representative will adequately protect the interests of the class as a whole.
In other words, for a judgment to have approximately the same impact on all class participants, all plaintiffs must have sufficiently similar claims for damages.
So the question before the court is whether all of these plaintiffs actually suffered similar damages from the defendants.
How long does a class action lawsuit take?
Again, the answer is “it depends.”
In some cases, the answer is 10 minutes. A defendant can end a lawsuit before it begins by settling with the plaintiff. Usually this means payment. According to Top Class Action, Settlements are usually It can take up to 9 months or a year.
But if a class action lawsuit goes to trial, the timeline is several years, typically two to three years, according to the Cochrane office.
