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What do you do if you think you have a class action case? I’m Gary Burger from Burger Law. A class action case is a case where a large number of relatively smaller claims are joined together in one case. There are specific rules as well as procedures both federally and in Illinois and Missouri which govern whether a case can be certified as a class action or not.
I’ve had numerous class actions in state and federal court, and basically it’s where you have numerosity, commonality, in the types of claims. Numerosity means there are enough claims that putting them together in one action is appropriate; commonality, the claims are all the same, the conduct of the defendant, the rule violations of the defendant were similar as to all the class members, whether that’s fraud, breach of contract, breach of consumer protection rights, product liability actions, or other types of employment actions, bad employment policies that similarly impact a number of people, then that’s appropriate.
So, if a local car dealer is ripping off people, if a big company has discriminatory policies, if an employer has a benefit system that is inappropriate, if a company is ripping off people in selling of stock or providing financial advice, if an employer is not paying people adequately and violating wage an hour or FLSA, the federal labor laws or the state labor laws, that would be appropriate. The Fair Labor Standards Act is the FLSA which covers overtime and other compensation.
If a company is manufacturing bad products and selling those products to a large group of people, if a bill collector is violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there are a number of ways that class action claims can arise, and what you could do, if you think you have or you think you’ve been ripped off something, you can google it. See if somebody is doing these claims. It may be smart for you to join another claim, a case that’s already been filed.
If you google it, you can’t find out anything, anybody’s doing it, then you can call me, Gary Burger, and I’d be happy to visit with you about your case and whether or not it would be an appropriate case to handle as an individual or a class member and what that entails. I’m at 866-599-2222 toll-free, in Missouri I’m at 314-542-2222, in Illinois 618-272-2222. We’re at www.burgerlaw.com. We’re happy to answer your questions about class claims, and whether you can have a class case.
In addition, sometimes, there may be a class action and you’ve been wanting to opt out of that or handle your own case because your damages are different, you’re more seriously injured, you’re concerned that you won’t have as vigorous a representation of it, some firm somewhere, you don’t know where they are, sometimes too, then you can opt out of that. There’s opting in classes, there’s opting out of classes. There’s a whole area of law and a jurisprudence on class action cases.
In addition, sometimes, you may have a case independent of a class action that you don’t need to opt in or out of. Sometimes also, sometimes people hire me and say, “Gary, I’m going to be part of this class action, but I want you to monitor the case to make sure that I’m treated fairly,” and I do that for a number of people as well.
So, call us if we can help, call us if you have any class action questions or call us if you’re wondering whether your case meets a class action definition and if it would be appropriate to maintain your case as a class action. Thank you.