What is a Class Action?

March 08, 2021Hadi M. Davarinia

A “class action” is a lawsuit where one person or a few people ask the court to decide a legal issue, or a set of legal issues, that affect a group of people in the same or similar way. For example, is a particular drug dangerous to consume, did a public company make a misstatement in their documents, was a fire caused by someone’s negligence, is a particular corporate business practice allowed under the business’ standard form contract. The answer to each of the questions set out above focuses on the defendant (the person being sued) and does not depend on the particular circumstances of the plaintiff (the person bringing the lawsuit).

What are the benefits of a Class Action?

A class action allows the court to decide a legal issue that affects many people at one time, rather than having multiple court cases dealing with the same issue. It also allows people who are in the affected group to have a court decide their case without them having to personally take on the financial risks and time requirements of a lawsuit.

A class action also sometimes allows a group of people to pool relatively small losses together in order to make a lawsuit worthwhile to bring. For example, if a large company such as an airline or bank causes a $300 loss to 1 million people, none of those people would bother to individually pursue a $300 loss, nor would such a small lawsuit be economically feasible to bring. However there is power in numbers, and pooling the losses together allows the affected group to bring a large lawsuit to recover some or all of their total losses.

Class actions generally also create a disincentive for larger companies to take advantage of a large group of people who are individually too weak to take on such a large defendant.

I think I may have a case – How do I know if my issue is suitable for a class action?

The lawyers at KND Complex Litigation have extensive experience in assessing the suitability of a particular issue to be brought as a class action. If you believe that you have suffered a loss or been harmed by a large corporation or government, reach out to KND Complex Litigation at [email protected] and one of our lawyers will respond to your inquiry within one day. You can also call our firm at +1 416 537 3529 and ask to speak with Eli Karp.

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