In California, class action lawsuits allow multiple people to sue jointly when they all suffered the same type of harm by the same defendant. Named plaintiffs bring legal claims for the entire class, and other impacted people can join as class members.
Class actions are often brought against companies that:
- sell defective products,
- create an environmental hazard, or
- commit wage and hour violations against its workers.
Class actions are beneficial for cases where each class member is seeking a relatively small amount of money (like after being overcharged on a utility bill or being scammed). Bringing an individual lawsuit would not be worth the expense, but bringing a class action would.
The following flowchart shows the progression of class action litigation in California.
Below, our California personal injury lawyers will answer these faqs:
- 1. How do I bring a class action lawsuit?
- 2. What happens after certification?
- 3. Can class members “opt out”?
- 4. Do all class members get the same payout?
- 5. How is multi-district litigation different?
- Additional Resources
1. How do I bring a class action lawsuit?
In California, the first step is to file a lawsuit in the appropriate court and move for “class action certification.” To get certification, the lawsuit must meet these five elements:
- Numerosity: The class size is so large that an ordinary lawsuit would be impracticable.
- Commonality: There must be major common legal and factual questions shared by all class members.
- Typicality: The claims of the main class representatives must be typical and aligned with the class.
- Adequacy: The class representatives must fairly and adequately protect class interests, and they cannot have conflicting interests or motivations compared to other members.
- Superiority: A class action would provide substantial benefits to the litigants and the courts, and it would be better at resolving the issue than other methods.
When determining whether a proposed class action should be certified, the court does not consider the underlying merits of the case. It only considers whether it meets the certification requirements.1
Class action settlements have a lot of power to modify corporate behavior.
2. What happens after certification?
If a class is certified, the court will mail a legal notice of the claim to all the potential class members. The notice will explain what the class action case is about and the rights of each member.
If the case is eventually resolved in your favor (either by trial or settlement), the court will notify members about how to make a claim for relief. In such a case, the defendant will usually be ordered to pay your fees and costs – including:
- attorneys’ fees, and
- court costs.2
3. Can class members “opt out”?
You usually have the right to “opt out” of class actions or proposed settlements in California. The opt-out procedure will be explained in the legal notice sent by the court.
By opting out, you retain the right to file an individual lawsuit. If you do nothing, you will be bound by any settlement or verdict.
4. Do all class members get the same payout?
It depends. Once a class action finally settles, the money should be divided among the class members in proportion to everyone’s individual losses. If everyone suffered identical damages, then everyone would get the same amount of money.
5. How is multi-district litigation different?
Both class actions and multi-district litigations (MDLs) involve groups of plaintiffs with similar injuries joining a common lawsuit. Though with MDLs, cases remain individual and separate rather than merging into one class.
This way, MDLs coordinate pre-trial proceedings across cases for increased efficiency while allowing each case to have a different outcome. This is in contrast to class actions, where members are bound together throughout with uniform settlements or verdicts applying equally to everyone.
Another difference is that class actions automatically include anyone who meets the class definition, and members are given the option to opt out. With MDLs, plaintiffs need to actively join the MDL through court filings.
Additional Resources
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- The Class Action Counterreformation – Stanford Law Review.
- Is the Class Action Really Dead – Is That Good or Bad for Class Members – Emory Law Journal.
- Effective Use of Class Action Procedures in California Toxic Tort Litigation – Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.
- Precertification Settlement of Class Actions: Will California Follow the Federal Lead – Hastings Law Journal.
- Daar v. Yellow Cab Co.: The Advent of the Consumer Class Action in California – University of San Francisco Law Review.
Legal References:
- Lindner vs. Thrifty Oil (2000) 23 Cal.4th 429; see, for example, Evenskaas v. Cal. Transit (Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Seven, 2022) 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 622; Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, (California Supreme Court, 2021), 11 Cal.5th 858; Falk v. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles ( See also CACI 115 – Class Action Defined (Plaintiff Class). (See also FRCP 23 at dccourts.gov for federal law rules.). See also California Code of Civil Procedure § 382 provides: “[W]hen the question is one of a common or general interest, of many persons, or when the parties are numerous, and it is impracticable to bring them all before the court, one or more may sue or defend for the benefit of all.” Sav-On Drug Stores v. Superior Court (2004) 34 Cal. 4th 319. Bell v. Farmers Ins. Exchange (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 715. La Sala v. American Sav. & Loan Assn. (1971) 5 Cal.3d 864. Daar v. Yellow Cab Co, (1967) 67 Cal. 2d 695; Vasquez v. Superior Court (1971) 4 Cal.3d 800. Note that federal class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 23 and 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332(d).
- According to the February 2010 report Class Certification in California by the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts, “Eighty-nine percent of cases [] ended in settlement while only 15 percent of cases with no [] certification ended in settlement.” Note that in the 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court indicated through various decisions that arbitration is often preferable to class actions. The Court also sanctioned the use of class action waivers. Note that class actions are not the same thing as multi-district litigations (MDLs). Certainly, MDLs are like class actions in that similarly injured plaintiffs join together to sue the same defendant in an effort to expedite litigation and save costs. Though MDLs are fundamentally different from class actions because MDL plaintiffs’ cases remain separate. MDLs are common in mass tort claims involving defective medical devices or dangerous drugs.