When you make a purchase, you make several assumptions about the product being effective and safe for its intended uses. If the product does not perform as promised or you are injured while using it, you may feel embarrassed and frustrated.
While you may be upset about what happened to you, you cannot help but wonder if others are in the same situation. When a company is negligent or fraudulent in the claims it makes about its product, it could be grounds for a class action lawsuit, allowing for many people with relatively small damages to make a claim against a large company.
Here’s what you should know about getting started with a class action lawsuit.
Finding the class
Simply, a class action lawsuit is one where one or more people bring a lawsuit on behalf of a larger group of impacted individuals. For example, if many people were injured using defective products, one or more of those affected people could bring a lawsuit on behalf of all of the people who were injured.
After your experience with the questionable product, you will need to talk to a skilled attorney who can help you find other individuals who have had a similar experience. These will be the other members of the “class.” The more individuals in the class, the more impactful the complaint.
How much will everyone get?
There will be several steps between discovering the defective product and the end of the lawsuit and any compensation will be contingent on proving your claim and winning the suit. If you win and are able to recover benefits, the settlement will be divided among everyone in the class. In many cases, the amount class members receive is based on how much damage they experienced with the defective product.
It is important to know that there are protections for consumers and that you can pursue a remedy for a company that violates its duty of care. You should talk to a skilled professional about your claim and how to move forward.