Class Action Lawsuits - What Are Class Action Lawsuits?

Class action lawsuits have been going on for decades. These are civil suits that are against large companies that have in some way offended the rights of many people. Civil law regulates disputes in which harm may have come to others. You may have seen commercials that are looking for people that have used particular drugs or who have been around asbestos. People can come into a great deal of money from these types of lawsuits.

Typically, class-action lawsuits are different from criminal trials because it is not discussing whether or not someone has broken the law, but whether one or more people have been harmed in some way by a corporation. If a group of people have experienced similar circumstances, and the common issues they have shared are the most critical focal points of the lawsuit, then the group can participate together in this legal action.

A very common example in which many consumers have been hurt in a similar manner is through a defective product. There have been recalls that have affected people in this way. Drawstrings on window blinds is an example of a defective product that has actually killed several children. The parents of the children could be gathered together to form a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer of this product.

Other examples are people that work for asbestos removal companies that been exposed to asbestos for decades. The fibers from this material lodged in their lungs has created mesothelioma cancer within their systems. These people can band together in order to seek monetary reward for damages done to their bodies because of their job.

There was a particular case in which a fertility doctor had taken the eggs of hundreds of women that he had helped through his fertilization procedures. He was selling the eggs on the black market for millions of dollars without telling the women what he had done. This created a multimillion dollar lawsuit in which hundreds of women received hundreds of thousands of dollars for their losses. Some of these women had children somewhere in the world that they would never meet because this doctor had sold their eggs.

In this particular case, it was not only about a physical illegality, but also an emotional one to. The trauma that these women went through in order to have children was a large enough ordeal. The amount of money that they spend caused them financial hardship to conceive children. But then to find out that they had been used for incubators for eggs to be sold on the black market, was too much of an emotional scar to bear.

In the end, the court determines how badly each party was injured and what reparations can be made in order to rectify the injustice. These types of lawsuits can also be used in regard to security claims, contracts, and employers that falsify information. Some of the largest lawsuits involve millions of people that receive small amounts of compensation for their participation.

Any person may unknowingly be eligible to participate in a class action lawsuit. There are many websites available online that can help you assess your situation and see if you are entitled to some sort of compensation for any wrongdoing that has happened to you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3538652