Consumer Class Action

What Qualifies To Be Certified As A Class Action

Whether a class action is superior to individual litigation depends on the case, and is determined by the judge's ruling on a motion for class certification.  In Federal civil procedure rules, which nowadays generally govern almost all class action cases, the class action must have certain characteristics:

• the class must be so large as to make individual suits impractical
• there must be legal or factual claims in common
• the claims or defenses must be typical of the plaintiffs or defendants
• the representative parties must adequately protect the interests of the class
• common issues between the class and the defendants will predominate the proceedings, as opposed to individual fact-specific conflicts between class members and the defendants
• that the class action, instead of individual litigation, is a superior vehicle for resolution of the disputes at hand.

Class actions instead seek victims who have been affected in the same or similar manner. Class treatment may not improve the efficiency of a mass tort because the claims frequently involve individualized issues of law and fact that will have to be re-tried on an individual basis.

Lead Plaintiff or  Class Representative

If your class action results in a settlement or favorable trial verdict, then as the lead plaintiff – also known as the class representative -- you may ask the court for an incentive bonus for your time and effort in representing the class, in addition to receiving whatever compensation you are entitled to as a class member. Courts often grant these requests in successful class action cases to encourage individuals to promote justice and further consumer protection.

Such a bonus may be in the thousands of dollars. Keep in mind, however, at no time are you entitled to any fee or a bonus. An incentive bonus is strictly up to the discretion of the court.

Additionally, because you are a class representative, you are seeking to promote the interests of the class members, i.e. consumers in your situation. This means that you are not permitted to receive any payments from lawyers or the defendant outside what is approved by the Court.

This is an important point because class representatives sometimes believe that they are entitled to more by serving as consumers’ lead representative. Unfortunately, the rules do not permit this.

Your decision to become lead plaintiff must be motivated by your desire to benefit other consumers who have been economically injured in the same or similar ways as you.

Basic Procedure For Proceeding As a Class Action

The procedure for filing a class action is to file suit with one or several named plaintiffs on behalf of a proposed class. The proposed class must consist of a group of individuals or business entities that have suffered a common injury or injuries, or common loss.

Typically these cases result from an action on the part of a business or a particular product defect or policy that applied to all proposed class members in a uniform manner. After the complaint is filed, the plaintiff must file a motion to have the class certified. In some cases class certification may require additional discovery – information gathering -- in order to determine if the proposed class meets the standard for class certification.

Upon the motion to certify the class, the defendants may object to whether the issues are appropriately handled as a class action, to whether the named plaintiffs are sufficiently representative of the class, and to their relationship with the law firm or firms handling the case.

The court will also examine the ability of the firm to prosecute the claim for the plaintiffs, and their resources for dealing with class actions.

Due process requires in most cases that notice describing the class action be sent, published, or broadcast to class members.

As part of this notice procedure, there may have to be several notices:

Class Action Lawsuit

Nowadays, class action lawsuits typically arise under the following circumstances:

Under the class action rules, the victim who files in many instances has the best chances of keeping the case local and being in charge of the litigation, even if other victims follow your lead and file later. Being first to file, therefore, can be critical to ensuring your rights and needs are protected.

If you have been the victim of financial loss because of consumer fraud, investment fraud, or wrongful conduct at the hands of large companies or financial institutions, then contact us today. We work with established consumer class action law firms which may be able to help you through deceptive business practices, consumer fraud, or other consumer protection issue.