What is a Class Action?
A class action is a lawsuit brought by one person or entity on behalf of a large group of people who have the same type of claim, where there are important facts common to all of them. The group is known as the class. Claims are typically pursued as a class action when it is not practical or feasible to file many relatively small individual lawsuits. An individual, corporation or government agency can initiate a class action.
A class action is a lawsuit that is brought by one or more representative plaintiffs on behalf of a group of people whose claims against common defendants arise from essentially the same facts or circumstances. Because securities fraud, generally speaking, affects all shareholders in essentially the same way because of the defendants’ common course of conduct, securities class actions are ideally suited for class action treatment.
In a class action, one or more people called lead plaintiffs or class representatives (in this case, Lead Plaintiffs New Millennium Growth Fund LLC, Richard C. Chapman for the Chapman Trust and proposed class representative Jeffrey A. Brandes), sue on behalf of people who have similar claims. All these people and/or entities are referred to collectively as a Class, or individually as Class Members. One court resolves the issues for all Class Members, except for those who exclude themselves from the Class.
A class action is a type of lawsuit in which one or several persons sue on behalf of a larger group of persons. While the subject matter of class action lawsuits can vary widely, two factors are almost always present for every class action: • the issues in dispute are common to all members of the class, and • the persons affected are so numerous as to make it impracticable to bring them all before the court. Depending upon the type of class action, resolution of the lawsuit binds all members of the class certified by the Court. Under Federal law, the rules governing class actions are found in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Many class action lawsuits are often started as the result of complaints by one or a handful of persons that affect many other persons. If you have been harmed by a fraud or deceptive practice, please feel free to contact us.
Related Questions
- With the GAO report, congressional hearings, the DOL 408 project and class action suits on revenue sharing with mutual funds, what advantage do ETFs have?
- Is formal action of the board of education required for student-funded programs such as yearbooks, class rings and gifts?
- What is a class action settlement?
