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. The group, or class, shares common important facts. 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 suit may occur when many different people combine their similar complaints. This saves court time and allows a single judge to hear all the concerns at the same time, and come to one settlement for all parties. If the court agrees to certify the complaints as a class action, all class members should have equal say and rights to any monies or remedies ordered by the court. A Class Action is a type of lawsuit in which one person, usually the “Lead Plaintiff,” represents everyone who suffered similar harm from the defendant’s unlawful conduct. Class action lawsuits often are filed when it would be impractical or prohibitively expensive for each person who was harmed to file an individual lawsuit, and they enable small shareholders or consumers to seek recovery from large corporations possessing much greater legal and financial resources. Generally, securities class actions are filed in the Federal District Courts and allege that the defendant(s) violated the Securities Act
A class action is a legal procedure used to prosecute efficiently a lawsuit in which a large number of people have been injured by a common act or set of actions. The class process is used, for example, in cases alleging or concerning price-fixing conspiracies (antitrust), fraudulent stock manipulation (securities), and oil spills (mass tort). In a class case, one or two named plaintiffs stand in for the entire group of similarly aggrieved persons during the course of the litigation. When a class case settles, the judge presiding over the case must approve the fairness and adequacy of the settlement. Usually, potential class members have the option, after receiving notice, of excluding themselves from a class or class settlement, and pursuing the case on their own. The class procedure allows individuals and small businesses to prosecute meritorious cases that would have been too expensive and inefficient to litigate individually.
A class action is a legal procedure used to prosecute efficiently a lawsuit in which a large number of people have been injured by a common act or set of actions. The class process is used, for example, in cases alleging or concerning price fixing conspiracies (antitrust), fraudulent stock manipulation (securities) and oil spills (mass tort). In a class case, one or two named plaintiffs stand in for the entire group of similarly aggrieved persons during the course of the litigation. When a class action settles, the judge presiding over the case must approve the fairness and propriety of the settlement. Usually, potential class members have the option, after receiving notice, of excluding themselves from a class or class settlement, and pursuing the case on their own. The class procedure allows individuals and small businesses to prosecute meritorious cases that would have been too expensive or too small to pursue on an individual basis.
A class action suit may occur when many different people combine their similar complaints. This saves court time and allows a single judge to hear all the concerns at the same time, andfacilitates one settlement for all parties. If the court agrees to certify the complaints as a class action, all class members should have equal say and rights to any monies or remedies ordered by the court. A Class Action is a type of lawsuit in which one person, usually the Lead Plaintiff, represents everyone who suffered similar harm from the defendants unlawful conduct. Class action lawsuits often are filed when it would be impractical or prohibitively expensive for each person who was harmed to file an individual lawsuit, and they enable small shareholders or consumers to seek recovery from large corporations possessing much greater legal and financial resources. Generally, securities class actions are filed in the Federal District Courts and allege that the defendant(s) violated the Securities Act
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?
