What is a class action lawsuit?
Class action lawsuits are filed by a person or a small group of people on behalf of a larger population against a manufacturer, financial institution, or other business. The plaintiffs in the suit will all have been hurt, injured, or otherwise wronged by the defendant. A class action lawsuit allows all people who have been injured or wronged in the same way to obtain compensation for their injuries.
A class action is a lawsuit in which one or more representative plaintiffs bring a lawsuit against defendants on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated persons. The representative plaintiffs, the Court, and counsel appointed to represent the class all have a responsibility to make sure that the interests of all Class Members are adequately represented. Importantly, Class Members are NOT individually responsible for the attorneys’ fees or litigation expenses of Class Counsel. In a class action, attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses are paid from the settlement fund (or the court judgment amount) and must be approved by the Court. When a class enters into a proposed settlement with a defendant, such as these settlements with Lufthansa, then the Court will require that the class be given notice of the settlement and be given an opportunity to be heard. The Court then conducts a hearing to determine, among other things, if the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable and adequa
In a class action lawsuit, one or more people or businessescalled the named plaintiffssue on behalf of other people or businesses that have similar claims. All of these people and businesses together are a Class, and individually each is a Class Member. One Court decides all the issues in the lawsuit for all Class Members, except for those who exclude themselves from the Class (called opting-out). A primary benefit of having a class action is that each individual or business will not have to pay for and spend time bringing its own lawsuit. In these lawsuits, the named plaintiffs are individuals and businesses that purchased diamond products. They have brought these cases on behalf of themselves and other individuals and businesses that purchased diamond products (See Question 6).
