Class Action Lawsuits

In a world where everything seems to be ruled by laws, a class action lawsuit is one of the common procedural devices used in litigation, filed by one or several persons on behalf of themselves to determine the rights of and remedies for a larger group of people who are facing similar issues.

The cases involved in a class action lawsuit involve common questions of law and fact, common to all the individuals confronting the same grievance. Class actions are governed by Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) in the United States district courts, referring to court procedures for civil suits.

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were established in 1938 to replace the earlier Field Code and common law pleadings. Since then, these rules have undergone significant revisions in 1948, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1993, 2000 and 2005. Most of all class actions nationwide are filed in state court, and often the defendant may try to remove the case to federal court.

Therefore, a civil suit may be brought, as example, by a group of consumers who are injured as a result of an allegedly harmful product, hence the principal issue would be whether the product caused the harm. Depending on the circumstances, class actions may be filed based on contracts, as in example, when a company causes damage for inadequate capacity to handle a service.

Because many class action lawsuits may involve hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people sharing similar claims, sometimes the class action is referred to as a mass action, although there are difference between one procedure and another. In mass actions, all the claims are joined in one single complaint, while the class action is filed individually for one, several or whatever number of individuals.

There is a large number of industries and companies that can be involved in class action lawsuits, including asbestos, automobile manufacturers, computer industry, dietary supplements, discrimination, energy sector, fast food, financial, guns and gun makers, health care providers, insurance, lead paint, oil and gas, retailers, silicon implants, tire maker, tobacco, travel services, miscellaneous industries, etc.

Class action lawsuits has been also filed against online services, such as Paypal, among others. Many universities across the nation are expanding their efforts in reformatting class-action lawsuit procedures. The purpose of a reform is intended to ensure availability of class-actions for efficient judicial resolution of those disputes which are affecting a class of persons.

However, such implementation requires identifying and preventing abusive use of any class-action as the only way to achieve significant settlements. In fact, during 2005 the House Small Business Committee held the "Medical Liability Reform" a hearing to stop the skyrocketing price of health care in relation to malpractice lawsuits.

Wrong administered medication is another cause that may qualify people for damages or other type of services that can be awarded in a possible class action lawsuit, either individually or submitting a complaint for lawyer review to services specialized in filing against the company, industry or service originating the problem.