Pleading Ignorance: How’d I get Sucked into a Lawnmower Class Action?

April 15th, 2010. By Kristine B

This one’s going out to all who asked the question, “How the heck did I get involved in this lawn mower lawsuit?”…

LawyersAndSettlements.com has received an overwhelming response to our post about the gas-powered lawn mower settlement. Makes you realize how many of us are out there every weekend preening those lush green carpets. So the response was great—and we’re glad we could not only tell everyone about the settlement, but also that we were able to help with your questions.

It brings up something about class action lawsuits though: most of us don’t really know much about ’em until some little postcard or letter shows up in the mail telling you that “You may be entitled to…” We realized that a number of you may wonder just how the heck a class action starts and how it all works. So, in this week’s Pleading Ignorance, I’ll try to help you understand it a bit more. 

FYI, we always have a class action FAQ here, but for a little more explanation, read on…

Class action lawsuits are filed when a large number of people have similar complaints. To make life easier for the plaintiffs and for the courts, the complaints are combined into one class action lawsuit. By combining the complaints, the courts hear all of the concerns at the same time and one settlement applies to all parties involved.

It’s a fair bet, too, that if so many folks have an issue with something, there’s more out there that have the issue as well; by filing a class action, every individual who is potentially a part of the “class” for the lawsuit is, technically, represented by the lawsuit. That why a lot of you asked how the heck you got selected for the lawn mower lawsuit settlement…that’s how: you bought one, you’re in. The class action has your back, so to speak—if you want it to. If you think you have a better chance of suing on your own, you can opt out of the class action and retain the right to sue on your own. 

Every class action lawsuit has a representative; a plaintiff who represents all members of the class. The representative is the person named in the lawsuit and may also be referred to as the lead plaintiff or the named plaintiff. The representative must represent the interests of the class and is actively involved in litigation. This means answering written questions, attending a deposition, providing relevant documentation and attending trial and taking the stand, if the trial does not settle. 

But, before a class action can be certified by the court (meaning the court allows the complaints to be combined into one lawsuit), certain requirements must be met. 

Numerosity: there must be an adequate number of plaintiffs to make a class action lawsuit worthwhile. Two people with similar complaints does not save the courts enough time to justify the work that goes into a class action lawsuit. To have a class action certified, there have to be enough plaintiffs to make a class action suit worthwhile—or to make individual suits impractical. The magic number for numerosity varies based on the kind of lawsuit it is—you’ll obviously have more plaintiffs for a lawn mower case than for a drug case where the drug is only used for a very specific condition.

Commonality: The plaintiffs must have suffered similar damages and have similar legal issues. A person who claims $1 million in damages should not be in a class action lawsuit with someone who suffered $1 thousand in damages. Now, this does not mean that everyone in the class has to have suffered exactly the same way. But the damages should be similar enough to be lumped together in one group. 

Furthermore, a person who claims only breach of contract would not be in the same lawsuit as a person only claiming negligence (they would each have to be claiming both breach of contract AND negligence to be in the same lawsuit). 

Typicality: The representative’s claims must have come from the same event and must make the same legal argument as the class members’ claims. This means that the person chosen to represent the class must have a claim that is typical of the other class members. The representative’s claims do not have to be identical to the group’s claims, but they must be typical of the claims. That’s why the lawsuit usually includes the phrase “similarly situated” to refer to class members. 

Adequacy of Representation: The plaintiff’s counsel must adequately protect the interests of class members and there must not be any conflicts of interest between the class representatives and the class members. 

Once a class action settlement is reached, class members are notified of the proposed settlement and given the opportunity to either join the settlement or object to its terms. That’s where most of you found yourselves with the lawn mower situation—you either got the postcard in the mail or you happened upon our post; either way, it’s like an APB going out. Class members may automatically be included in the settlement without doing anything or they may be required to “opt-in” to the settlement.

As you can imagine, a class action can have quite a number of claimants—so a Settlement Administrator or Claims Administrator handles the communication of the settlement and the receipt and processing of all the claim forms. And that’s where you had to go for the lawn mower settlement…over to LawnMowerClass.com.

While claims are being submitted, objections may also be received. The objections will be heard at a hearing to approve the settlement—the settlement isn’t paid out until it’s been approved by the court. Once the settlement is approved, the claims can finally be processed…and the check, or voucher, will be in the mail.

Tags: Pleading Ignorance

This was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues, Pleading Ignorance . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.