A class action lawsuit is when a group of people, generally consumer’s of a product or service, come together with representation and file a legal lawsuit against a company, individual or government entity. A class action lawsuit must encompass one particular area of wrong doing, such as malpractice or product failure. For example, even though two thousand people may be rightfully angry with a company’s product or service, each may have a different complaint. One complaint may be about excessive billing and another about a faulty product. There needs to be a substantial amount of complaints about the same issue, such as billing, in order to file a class action lawsuit.
As an example, perhaps a particular medication caused the same side effects in a significant portion of those who took the medication that was not disclosed when the medication was administered or prescribed. This would constitute a class action lawsuit, if the side effects were severe enough to cause long term damage. Another example would be if a utility or credit card company charged a fee that was not within their terms and conditions and without cause. If this charge was billed to many customers over a specified period of time, and enough of these customers come forward, this would be sufficient to file a class action lawsuit.
Generally, when a class action lawsuit is in the beginning stages, the representation that takes the issue up as a cause will advertise and solicit to find as many other affected consumers as possible that had the same issue. The more provable complaints, the stronger the case is.
Many class action lawsuits are settled out of court. Either by way of judgment or out-of-court settlement, a fair amount for damages is ordered. First, the legal representation who brought the class action suit forward takes out their compensation. The remainder of the settlement or judgment is dispersed accordingly to the lawsuit participants. It is important to remember that even if you were a victim of the class action lawsuit complaint, you must have filed with the representing counsel in order to be considered for payment, and then you must prove that you were in fact a victim. If you were a victim, but did not participate in the lawsuit, you will not be entitled to any of the awarded monies.
There are certain instances where the awarded monies are not divided equally among all class action participants. Perhaps some of the participants experienced the death of a loved one and others were adversely affected which resulted in hospital bills. The participants that experienced the death of a loved one may be entitled to a larger portion of the award.
Class action lawsuits are a way of voicing and being compensated for a company, individual or government entities negligence. It is a commercial duty to be sure that the products or services that they are selling will not bring any harm to the consumer, neither mental, physical, health, or financial.
