A class action aggregates claims too numerous or too small to litigate individually. Named representatives litigate on behalf of absent class members, who are bound by the judgment unless they opt out where opt-out rights exist.
Certification requires satisfying threshold requirements and fitting within one of the defined class types.
Alternative Names:
Class Litigation, Representative Action
Why it Matters?
Certification is effectively the whole case. A certified class transforms individually trivial claims into aggregate exposure large enough that most defendants settle regardless of merit, while denial usually ends the litigation because individual claims are uneconomic. That asymmetry is why defense resources concentrate on the certification motion and on the interlocutory appeal available from a certification order.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How does a class action differ from a mass tort?
Why is certification so decisive?
