What is a Class Action?
Put simply, a class action is a process by which the claims of many people can be made simultaneously in a single court proceeding.
The Representative
The claims of the group are advanced by a representative plaintiff (or representative applicant), who is the person named on the court documents and who provides instructions to the lawyers for the group.
The trial of the representative plaintiff’s claim will be used to answer a set of ‘common questions’ which resolve the issues common to group members - reducing the issues of individual proof substantially. Group members can benefit from these findings, often reducing the effort involved in advancing their own claim down to something as simple as completing a form and attaching some basic supporting documentation.
The Power of Class Actions
Too often, large companies and other institutions are able to mistreat or rip-off ordinary people by doing a small wrong thousands (or even millions) of times. The legal costs, stress and time involved in holding these wrongdoers to account is often disproportionate to the potential outcome of any one claim. However, pooled together, the claims of group members can be powerful.
In almost 40 years of combined practice in the area, the Partners at Echo Law have acted in dozens of class actions and recovered more than $850m for deserving claimants. We have the experience and energy to use the class actions process to deliver some justice to group members where individual action is impossible.
The Court
The Court exercises special supervisory powers over class actions, overseeing the notification of group members (of matters including their right to opt out of the class action and of any proposed settlement of the case) and over the settlement and legal costs of a class action.
For a settlement of a class action to be approved, the Court must be convinced that the settlement is fair and reasonable to the group members as a whole, and that the method proposed to divide the settlement amongst group members is fair between them. Legal costs must also be approved as fair and reasonable.