How will the court decide whether to certify the case as a class action?

The court will have to be persuaded that the following 4 things have been proved before it certifies a class action:

1.  The class is so numerous, that individual lawsuits could not be filed and joined together.  That usually means that there must be at least 40 people that are similarly situated.

2.  There are common questions of fact or law, which means that all the class members have suffered a similar wrong, and proving that wrong would involve proving similar facts and using similar law.

3.  The claim of the plaintiff is typical of all the class members’ claims.  In other words, the plaintiff and the class have suffered from a similar wrongdoing, and the plaintiff’s claim is not unusual as compared to the claims of the class members.

4.  Plaintiff and class counsel are qualified to and will protect the interests of the class members.

Steve Larson

An experienced trial lawyer who handles both hourly and contingent fee cases, Steve has expertise in class actions, environmental clean-up litigation, antitrust litigation, securities litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property disputes, unfair competition claims, and disputes involving family wealth. Steve regularly represents individuals and businesses in federal and state court and has obtained class-wide recovery in multiple class actions. A veteran practitioner, Steve’s clients value his creative approach to resolving complex litigation matters.

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