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A12 BUSINESS
Friday 12 May 2023
Millennial Money: Should I join a

class-action lawsuit?

By DALIA RAMIREZ
of NerdWallet
It might have happened
to you a few times in past
years: You received an
email or mail notice in-
viting you to join a class-
action lawsuit, or notifying
you that you’ve been au-
tomatically included. But
being part of such a law-
suit might be intimidating,
especially if you need to
opt in, and would mean
surrendering the option to
sue individually.
In most cases, there’s little A stamp is shown on an envelope Friday, May 28, 2021, in
downside to joining these Washington. Associated Press
lawsuits, which combine
many legal claims often $10 to $20 as compensa- at Duane Morris and vice
thousands into one claim tion, joining a collective chair of the firm’s work-
against a single defen- lawsuit can help other cus- place class-action group.
dant, reducing fees for tomers or employees get She notes that some courts
each claimant and poten- justice, and may deter a in some jurisdictions would
tially earning a much larg- company from harmful be able to grant a service
er payout. practices in the future. award to plaintiffs repre-
And there have been many If you’re part of the “class” senting the case, which
opportunities to do so. Fol- of a lawsuit that is, if you are often between $2,500
lowing a series of large were affected by the cer- and $7,500 , but other
opioid settlements, 2022 tain event or purchase courts have found these
had the most billion-dollar described you’ll often be awards inappropriate.
class-action settlements in automatically included in And it’s difficult to discern
U.S. history apart from the the lawsuit. And for certain upfront whether such a
tobacco settlements de- cases, such as those relat- service award would be
cades ago, according to ing to wage violations or granted. Class-action law-
a report from the national defective products , you suits can also take any-
law firm Duane Morris. The may have to opt in. where from a few months
stakes are high for class- CLASS REPRESENTATIVES to several years, which can
action lawsuits at this level, DON’T ALWAYS GET A be an excessive commit-
as they set standards for LARGER PAYOUT ment for many. he Exxon
corporate responsibility in If you feel strongly about Valdez oil spill, for exam-
areas such as data priva- the outcome of a class- ple, took 17 years to reach
cy, employee discrimina- action lawsuit, you can a class-action settlement.
tion, securities fraud and also participate as a class WHEN TO OPT OUT (OR NOT
civil rights. representative, sometimes JOIN)
But in cases where you called a lead plaintiff. In If you plan to make a case
suffered significant harm, some cases, becoming a of your own, it makes sense
suing individually could se- class representative could to opt out of, or not par-
cure a bigger payout. lead to a bigger payout ticipate in, a class-action
WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN but that isn’t always the lawsuit.
(OR NOT OPT OUT) case. “If you have your own law-
In many cases, class-action Even though the class rep- suit, the value of your claim
lawsuits offer such a minor resentative is the case’s might be much, much
payout to each victim that headline, “That person isn’t higher as an individual
participation is a matter of necessarily going to get than it would have been
principle, not reward. But any kind of windfall,” says as a class member,” says
even if you receive only Jennifer A. Riley, a partner Gerald L. Maatman Jr., a
partner at Duane Morris
and the chair of the law
firm’s workplace class-ac-
tion group. “You’re trying
to decide, ‘If I opt out, am
I going to do that much
better than I’d do in a class
action?’ And in certain cir-
cumstances, an individual
would do better. They’d
get the money quicker,
and they’d get more mon-
ey.” q