What is a class action? Why do I keep getting mailers from out-of-town attorneys inviting me to join a lawsuit?
Some attorneys send out letters when they become aware of community-wide problems to solicit clients. Just because you receive these flyers does not mean that your home has problems. Sometimes only certain floor plans are problematic within a community. The possibility also exists that the attorney was not aware of any problems in your neighborhood, but are manufacturing lawsuits. It is difficult to know the difference. It is sometimes helpful to look at the specificity of the letter and the location of the law firm. A “class action” is a lawsuit brought by a small group of people in their own name, individually, and in the name of other persons similarly situated, “representatively,” such as on behalf of persons facing similar construction defect problems. When forty homeowners join together in a lawsuit to sue their builder, this is not a class action, it is a mass tort. If two people join in a lawsuit, and sue on behalf of themselves and forty other people similarly situated, this i
