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ever-expanding landscape of class action suits and complex, even without the addition of major
being litigated. But the return on this investment of amounts of money and corporate reputations at
time and energy can be formidable. For a business, stake . The professionalization of class action suits
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the idea of missing out on money that is available has in fact introduced even more complexity into
simply through effective organization should feel these behemoth cases: if there are attorneys and
alien. A mindful company shouldn’t view pursuing firms who now exclusively focus on bringing and
relevant class action compensation as anything but litigating class action suits, there are now also what
a standard aspect of its savings repertoire. Such a are referred to in common parlance as “professional
pursuit does not even require enlisting the services objectors,” who introduce needless motions and
of an attorney. obstructions into the ongoing course of class action
When a consumer or company files to cases and the recuperation of settlements until
receive funds for a class action suit, a case has they are essentially paid to go away. Despite the
already been pursued on behalf of a plaintiff, the disreputable nature of this practice - serial abusers
judge has decided that the plaintiff represents all can be disbarred, and often have to act through
or many people or groups in similar circumstances intermediaries - series of extortionate objections
(called class certification), and, either before or can tie up cases for months or years, preventing
during trial, the defendant has agreed to release a claimants from receiving damages that would have
pool of money that a judge consents to as adequate long since been distributed.
to compensate those damaged by the defendant’s What remains once a settlement has been
malfeasance. defined is the work of contacting every member or
It would seem, then, that at the point at which many members – a figure sometimes in millions –
you, as a member of a wronged class awarded of the class delineated by the suit, notifying them
damages, enter into the class action process, most of their right to claim a portion of the funds and
of the work has already been done. This is both true laying out the procedures for doing so . This does
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and untrue. Class action litigation is certainly long not at all guarantee, however, that companies

3 To give just a hint of their complexity, the juridical practice of judges in such cases is guided by the Manual of Complex Litigation, Fourth Edition, which runs to just
under eight-hundred pages. It is publicly available from the Federal Judiciary Center; perhaps save it for a very rainy day.

4 In the course of the lawsuit itself, class members may also be contacted about their inclusion in the class, with instructions for opting out if they intend to pursue
their own independent litigation based on idiosyncratic legal arguments that diverge from the bases of the class action case; this happens increasingly, as class
action filings have gravitated towards state in addition to federal courts.

“It would seem, then, that at the point at which

you, as a member of a wronged class awarded

damages, enter into the class action process,
most of the work has already been done. This is
both true and untrue.”

© 2018 SIB Fixed Cost Reduction • PAGE 3