How to File a Class Action Lawsuit

In civil law, a class action lawsuit allows many potential plaintiffs who suffered similar injuries from a single defendant to join the same suit rather than filing multiple lawsuits. A class action is more efficient both for the courts and for the potential plaintiffs who don't have to go through the time and effort of filing a separate lawsuit. Class actions also are beneficial in cases where each individual plaintiff's damages would be relatively small.^{[1]XResearch source}^{[2]XResearch source}

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Hiring a Class Action Attorney

1
Make sure your case is appropriate for a class action. Your case may represent a valid class action lawsuit if there are a large number of individuals who potentially have the same claim that you do.
- Hiring an experienced class action attorney is the best way to proceed with filing a class action lawsuit. Class actions are complex, whether filed in federal or state court. Particularly if you intend to sue a large corporation, you may be met with a team of top-notch and highly skilled attorneys acting in defense.^{[3]XResearch source}
- Certain types of civil actions are more frequently the subject of class action lawsuits than others. For example, class actions often are filed over a defective product or false advertising.^{[4]XResearch source}
- A class action lawsuit has the benefit of providing you more leverage with other class members than you would have as an individual. This is especially valuable when your damages are small.^{[5]XResearch source}
- For example, suppose a group of consumers file a lawsuit about a new smart phone that gets no reception if it is in the same room as a television. Each individual may only have damages of a few hundred dollars or so, but their claims combined could result in a recovery of millions of dollars.
- The four primary types of class action lawsuits are securities class actions, product liability or personal injury class actions, consumer class actions, and employment class actions.
2
Search for class action attorneys on your state bar association's website. Your state bar association has listings of all attorneys licensed to practice law in your state. This database typically is searchable by the attorney's specialty or area of practice.
- You also can try other searchable databases such as FindLaw or Lawyers.com to find a class action lawyer near you.
- Once you've found the names of attorneys, check their websites to see what kinds of law they practice. Then check their record with the bar association to ensure they've had no disciplinary actions or complaints filed against them.
3
Interview potential candidates. Once you've found some potentially good attorneys to represent your interests, schedule an interview with each one before you choose the best one.
- Ask each attorney questions about the kind of cases they normally take, how many cases they have going at one time, how much time will be devoted to your case, and how they will fight for your interests.
- Also get an understanding of the amount of experience each attorney has. You need to know not only if she has experience handling cases like yours, but if she has experience suing a company like the one you intend to sue. Large corporations can be intimidating, and have a lot of money to defend a lawsuit as well as highly skilled legal teams.
- Class action attorneys typically will provide a free consultation to help you determine whether filing a class action lawsuit is your best course of action, and how you should proceed.
4
Choose an attorney with experience. Once you've interviewed possibilities, compare and contrast your options and select the attorney with the most experience fighting cases like yours, and who has the resources and the passion to thoroughly represent your best interests.
- Due to the significant number of procedural requirements unique to class actions, you should make sure you hire someone with experience in class action lawsuits, not just someone with experience in the type of case you have.^{[6]XResearch source}
- If you're reluctant to be the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, remember to ask the attorneys you interview if they're willing to represent you or file the lawsuit without using you as the representative of the class.^{[7]XResearch source}
5
Make sure your chosen attorney has the financial ability to fight your lawsuit. Class action attorneys generally advance the costs of the lawsuit, absorbing the loss if the case is unsuccessful, so finding a successful attorney who isn't going to run out of money halfway through the pre-trial discovery process is paramount.
- Class action attorneys typically get paid by taking a percentage of the recovery, rather than by taking any payment up front. For this reason, you need to make sure that the law firm you've chosen has the resources and infrastructure necessary to fight the lawsuit without getting paid.^{[8]XResearch source}
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Filing the Initial Lawsuit

1
Decide whether you want to be the lead plaintiff. To begin a class action, a few representative plaintiffs file suit and conduct the litigation, while others are contacted only to receive their share of the damages award.^{[9]XResearch source}
- Keep in mind that although, as the lead plaintiff, you will hire the attorney and play a significant role in the case, you will not incur any attorney fees or other legal expenses. Often, if the case settles or the class wins at trial, the lead plaintiff will be paid first and may receive additional payment for all the additional work.^{[10]XResearch source}
- Because only the lead plaintiff can agree to accept or reject a settlement offer, the role requires a lot of responsibility. The lead plaintiff must make sure the settlement offer is fair to everyone in the class before accepting it.^{[11]XResearch source}
- The lead plaintiff must work closely with the attorneys and appear in court, so being lead plaintiff can become a pretty significant time commitment.^{[12]XResearch source}
- If other potential plaintiffs don't want to be involved in the lawsuit, they have the ability to opt out and not participate. In the event the plaintiffs are successful, those who opted out will not have the right to recover any damages for their injuries.^{[13]XResearch source}
You will need to have copies of all documentation that supports your argument or proves any losses or injury you suffered.
3
Choose the correct court. Before you start drafting your complaint, you must decide whether you are going to file your lawsuit in state or federal court, as each may have different procedures for a class action.
- Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governs class actions in federal court, however, each state has its own procedural rules for class actions that occur in its state courts.
- Attorneys may use federal class action rules if even one of the plaintiffs in the suit lives in a different state from the state where the case is filed.^{[14]XResearch source}
4
Draft your complaint. As with any civil suit, you must draft a complaint describing the damages you suffered as a result of the defendant's acts or neglect to act.
- Compensation sought in a class action lawsuit often includes damages for personal injury or economic loss, as well as all the costs of litigation.^{[15]XResearch source}
- In the case of a class action, you must be able to demonstrate that all the class members' injuries happened as a result of a common set of facts or legal interests.^{[16]XResearch source}
Typically the cover sheet will include a box for you to check indicating that you intend your lawsuit to be a class action.^{[17]XResearch source}
After you've completed and signed all your paperwork, everything must be filed with the clerk of court in the court with jurisdiction over your claim.^{[18]XResearch source}
7
Have your complaint served on the defendant. Before the court will hear your lawsuit, you must have it served on the person you're suing so they know they're being sued and have the opportunity to respond.
- Once you've had the complaint served, you typically must file a proof of service telling the court that the defendant has notice of the suit.^{[19]XResearch source}
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Having the Class Certified

1
Draft your motion to have the class certified. In some states, the court initiates the certification process after you check the class action box on the cover sheet when you file your complaint. In others, you must file a motion to start the process of having the judge certify the class.
- If you don't have your class certified, your complaint will be dismissed, so the certification process is the most important step prior to trial.
- Not only must you meet general requirements for the judge to certify your class, you also must meet any specific state requirements.^{[20]XResearch source}
- If the judge certifies your class, this doesn't mean the defendant is liable for the group's damages. It only means that you've sufficiently proven that all of you suffered similar damages for similar reasons and there are too many of you to join as individual plaintiffs.^{[21]XResearch source}
If you were required to file a motion to initiate the class certification process, it must be filed with the same clerk where you filed your complaint, using the same case number.^{[22]XResearch source}
3
Attend the hearing on your motion. The judge will schedule a hearing on your motion to have your class certified. If you don't appear your motion will be dismissed.
- If you've decided to be the lead plaintiff in the action, you probably will need to show up for the hearing on the motion. Otherwise, it's not strictly necessary to attend the hearing unless your class action attorney intends to call you as a witness.^{[23]XResearch source}
4
Prove a class action is the best and most efficient way of resolving the claims. To have your class certified, you must be able to demonstrate that the representative plaintiff's claims are so similar to all the rest of the class members that resolving the issues in that one case will effectively resolve them all.^{[24]XResearch source}
- Since the trial has not yet started, the judge will assume that all the claims in your complaint are true. You must be able to show that the injuries you (or another representative plaintiff, if you declined the lead position) suffered are the same as those of other members of the class.
- You also must be able to prove that there are so many potential members of the class that it would be impractical to join all of them as plaintiffs to a single lawsuit, and wasteful to force them all to sue on their own. Typically, 40 or more plaintiffs is enough to prove there are enough potential plaintiffs to justify a class action lawsuit.^{[25]XResearch source}
- For example, if you were injured by a defective product, and you know that the same company sold 200 of the products before the defect was discovered and the product was removed from the shelves, you may have a class action lawsuit.
- Mass personal injury suits are more difficult to resolve using a class action, since each individual's injuries may differ and the size of the class can be all but impossible to determine.^{[26]XResearch source}
- Once the judge certifies the class, everyone else who is potentially in the class is notified and given the opportunity to opt out of the class and not take n
- Typically, the defendant only becomes truly interested in negotiating a settlement after the judge has certified the class.^{[27]XResearch source}
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