What is a class action?
A class action is a type of lawsuit where an individual (the “class representative”) sues to enforce not just his or her rights, but the rights of all individuals whose rights were violated in the same way. Instead of many separate identical cases and trials, there is one case and one trial at which the class representative and class counsel prove a right to relief for the entire class.
Class actions are ideal for many types of consumer law claims as unfair business practices often affect a large group of people in the same way and, the wrongdoing may result in small harm to each consumer, even though large overall. For instance, when a large debt collection agency sends a misleading letter to thousands of consumers, each member of this potential “class” will likely have a right to relief for damages stemming from an identical harm (that is, receipt of the exact same illegal letter). When a lender or debt buyer over charges one million people by $10., the class action allows the consumer to pool these very small (individual) losses into a large scale refund.
Cary Flitter and his team of experienced consumer lawyers have pursued scores of class action lawsuits against debt collectors, credit reporting agencies, lenders, manufacturers and businesses whose conduct warranted. They have attained millions of dollars in settlements and awards for class members throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the United States.
Cy Pres Awards
After monetary distribution of a class action settlement to class members, occasionally there are funds left over, either because the class member has passed away, has moved and is unreachable, or the class member simply doesn’t cash the check. As part of the class settlement, these undistributed funds are sometimes designated as Cy Pres funds, or charitable funds, subject to approval of the Court. Where appropriate, the parties can advocate approval of consumer charities for the cy pres award. We sometimes propose to the Court charities that work towards assisting individuals , young adults through seniors, with issues of consumer credit, debt collection abuse, credit reporting problems, and other consumer uses. To date, over $280,000 in otherwise undistributable funds from the firm’s class settlements has been paid out to such programs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and elsewhere in the U.S.
