The Class Action Mechanism and Courts’ Continued Focus on Class Certification and Settlement Requirements

Reprinted with permission from Thomson Reuters. Any opinions in this Inside the Minds: Recent Trends in Class Action Lawsuits chapter are not those of Winston & Strawn or its clients. The opinions in this chapter are the author’s opinions only.

A class action is a procedural mechanism by which an individual plaintiff (or a small group of plaintiffs) prosecutes nearly any statutory or regulatory violation or common law claim on behalf of a much larger group of unnamed plaintiffs who share a common interest and are similarly situated. The individual plaintiff who brings the action is referred to as the putative “class representative” because that individual represents the interests of all members of the class in the litigation. The unnamed class members are referred to generically as the “class members” and do not usually participate in the litigation, but reap any benefits the representatives are able to win on their behalf. In cases brought in the federal court system, the class representatives must satisfy a variety of prerequisites set out in Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure before a case can proceed as a class action. At the highest level, these rules are designed to ensure the representatives are “part of the class and possess the same interest and suffer the same injury as the class members.”