Mark Roman | July 22, 2024 | Personal Injury
The class action lawsuit is a decade-old legal innovation that, in essence, merges multiple claims into a single lawsuit. Class action lawsuits are efficient for the judicial system because they prevent the court system from breaking down under the weight of a multitude of individual lawsuits.
Despite this efficiency, class actions take just as much time to resolve as individual lawsuits —months or even years. And like individual lawsuits, there is no certain way to determine how long a case will take to resolve. All you can do is examine the relative factors and “guesstimate.”
What Types of Claims Are Class Action Lawsuits Used For?
Imagine taking a prescription medication that, due to a manufacturing defect, causes permanent damage to your liver. Imagine that millions of people all over the United States took the same medication, and thousands of them suffered liver damage. This is a classic class action lawsuit scenario because it involves multiple victims with similar claims.
Other scenarios include mass exposure to chemicals, plane crashes, and other accidents involving dozens of victims.
How Class Actions Work
In a class action lawsuit, a single plaintiff files a lawsuit on behalf of a class of plaintiffs (the victims of a defective drug, for example). The plaintiff then petitions the court to certify the class of plaintiffs they seek to represent. Only if the court certifies the class can the lawsuit move forward.
Participation in the lawsuit is voluntary—any member of the class can opt-out. The remaining members share any settlement or verdict.
The Process
A class action lawsuit involves filing the lawsuit, certifying the class, notifying the class members, pretrial discovery, negotiations, and settlement or trial.
Filing the Lawsuit
‘Filing a class action lawsuit’ means submitting a written lawsuit complaint that outlines the claims, identifies the plaintiffs, and describes the class. Typically, the class should include at least a couple of dozen members, but it might include thousands of members.
Certifying the Class
Next, the court must certify the class. The court’s main factors to determine whether to certify the class are whether they have similar claims and whether the plaintiff adequately represents them. This step might take another few weeks or even longer.
Notifying the Plaintiffs and Giving Them the Chance to Opt-Out
You must notify each plaintiff and give them a chance to ‘opt-out’ of the class action. Opting out means you don’t share in any proceeds but you retain the right to file your own lawsuit.
It is common to notify the plaintiffs by mail or by newspaper publication. The length of time it takes depends largely on the size of the class. The larger the class, the more time notification takes.
Pretrial Discovery
Pretrial discovery is a process of gathering evidence that is in the possession of the other party. It is court-supervised, which means that it has teeth. You can seek court sanctions if the other side doesn’t cooperate. Discovery can take up to a year to complete and even more in some cases.
Settlement Negotiations
Once you have access to the evidence that the discovery process provides, you could be well-armed to seek a settlement. If your evidence is strong enough and other factors fall into place, you might be able to compel a settlement shortly after the discovery process ends or even during discovery.
If not, you might choose to resort to mediation or even trial. If you do settle, your settlement agreement becomes a binding legal contract.
Trial
Trial is the last resort for a class action lawsuit, and it is the option that both sides typically avoid. A trial can be over in a day (not likely), in a few weeks, or, in rare cases, in a few years.
Yes, You Will Need a Lawyer To Initiate a Class Action Lawsuit
You may or may not need to hire a lawyer to help you resolve an individual claim. When you’re representing dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of claimants, however, hiring an experienced personal injury attorney is a must.
Under the contingency fee that most personal lawyers use, you will owe no attorney’s fees unless you win compensation.
Contact the Clearwater Personal Injury Law Firm of Roman Austin for Help Today
For more information, please contact the legal team of Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers for a free initial consultation with a Personal Injury lawyer in Clearwater. We have convenient locations in Florida: St. Petersburg, Safety Harbor, Clearwater, New Port Richey, and Tampa.
We serve throughout Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, Pasco County, and its surrounding areas:
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – Clearwater Office
1811 N. Belcher Road, Suite I-1
Clearwater, FL 33765
(727) 787-2500
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – Congress Ave Office
2360 Congress Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33763
(727) 591-5610
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – Tampa Office
6601 Memorial Hwy Suite 202
Tampa, FL 33615
(813) 686-7588
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – New Port Richey Office
2515 Seven Springs Blvd.
New Port Richey, FL, 34655
(727) 815-8442
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – St. Petersburg Law Office
840 Beach Dr NE Suite 202
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 787-2500
Roman Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – Safety Harbor Law Office
202 9th Ave S Suite A-2
Safety Harbor, FL 34695
(727) 787-2500