Class Action Lawsuits Defined
Legal Article GuideBy: Margaret Wommack
A class action is a civil lawsuit filed by multiple people who experienced the same injury from the same product, a single trial to hear all claims. The difference between their cases as individuals is only the extent to which each was injured. For instance, one anti-inflammatory medication user who developed SJS may have the associated rash while another may have lung damage and blindness as well. Often when a party was injured by a product but they do not have a strong enough case to file an individual lawsuit against the company, they can band together with others who suffered injury from the same product to make their case stronger by numbers.
Another benefit of class action lawsuits is pursuing a suit for only small losses. For example, $100 spent on a product that doesn’t work or spent to correct problems the product causes is a mall amount of money and does not justify the expense and time of filing a lawsuit. However, many people who have all lost $100 can band together and file a class action suit, splitting amongst them the cost of lawyer fees and filing the suit, and can hope for a settlement to be reached. If not for class action suits, that $100 lost, small in the court’s eyes but substantial to the individual, could never be recovered and the company responsible for the faulty product would never have to reform. Class action lawsuits are most often for defective products, asbestos, prescription drug side effects or tobacco. If your case involves people across state borders then you may file a Federal class action. These suits are much more complicated and require a good, experienced lawyer.
Class action lawsuits have many benefits. They are more efficient, presenting witnesses and exhibits and facts of the case all at once rather than holding up the courts with trying them separately. They spread the burden of cost between all the different plaintiffs who, on their own, might not have been able to file suits. Furthermore, if recoveries are small (although no less significant to the individual) it is not cost beneficial to file a suit independently because of fees. They ensure that all plaintiffs get their portion of the settlement; here, the plaintiffs who first complained are not given extra money.
If you have any questions about class action lawsuits, please contact a class action lawyer right away.
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