Class Actions
Class actions enable a single individual, or group of similarly-situated individuals, to bring one suit and recover against a defendant or group of defendants. An individual plaintiff may file the suit and act on behalf of the class. That individual is the "class representative" and the other members of the group are the "class members." The total number of class members can range from a small group to thousands, or even tens of thousands.
We typically divide class actions into eight categories, including securities, labor/employment, product liability, consumer fraud or false advertising, antitrust, environmental, unfair debt collection, and civil rights.
Why file a class action? Why not just file a regular individual lawsuit?
Class actions are ideal when each person has suffered damages of only a small amount of money (or at least an amount small enough to make filing an individual lawsuit cost prohibitive). By bringing a class action, your attorney can take the case on a contingent fee, and seek to recover fees from the defendant based on the total amount of money recovered for the entire class.
The other advantage to filing a class action lawsuit is that it is more likely to cause a large corporation, or other defendant, to take notice of the suit and/or change its wrongful behavior. In other words, the size of the potential award will possibly have a greater impact on public safety, consumer protection, truth in advertising, etc. Large companies will sometimes only take notice of larger suits in which they stand to lose millions of dollars, as opposed to losing a couple hundred dollars.
The Law
Authority to maintain class actions comes from Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 and Missouri Rule of Civil Procedure 52.08. Because those two rules are nearly identical, much of Missouri procedural law relating to class action litigation is adopted directly from federal opinions, rules and statutes. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 modified existing law to permit and require a greater percentage of suits to be brought in federal courts (as opposed to state courts). If you are a law student, or an attorney considering filing your first class action lawsuit, I recommend that you read The Class Action Playbook, by Anderson and Trask (Oxford University Press, 2010) from cover to cover. The ABA also provides a variety of helpful state-specific resources.
More Information
If you have a question relating to a possible or pending class action, please send a direct message or call our office at (314) 725-4400. For more information on some of our recent cases, please visit our news page. We also have an FAQ relating to class actions and other issues.