Class Action

Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. has years of experience handling a wide variety of class action matters focused on consumer fraud, products liability, employment discrimination, wage and hour litigation, securities fraud, anti-trust, health care, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), insurance bad faith and corporate misconduct. The attorneys at Wilentz have prosecuted a number of cases nationwide and have obtained millions of dollars for members of the classes they have represented.

Class actions serve an important function in our system of civil justice. Class actions are typically considered the superior method of litigating cases where a large number of individuals have been injured for a relatively small amount of money in comparison to what it would cost the individual to litigate the case on their own.

Class actions are filed by "named representatives" who are individuals, unions, or small businesses that have the same problem or have been injured in the same manner as the rest of the proposed class. These named representatives "represent" the rights of all the individuals in the class, thereby allowing an entire group of people to recover through their efforts.

The named representatives must ask the court to certify the action as a class action. If the court does "certify" the action as a class, the parties work to create and provide a notice to class members, advising them of their rights and that they may be bound by the results of the lawsuit.

Once a class action goes to trial or is resolved in favor of plaintiffs and members of the class or settled, notice is once again sent to class members to advise them of steps to be taken, if any, in order to receive any compensation they may be entitled to a result of the suit.

Wilentz has represented classes comprised of consumers, investors, unions, employees, and other individuals and entities against a number of large corporate and commercial defendants. We have been involved in and successfully litigated class actions in both federal and state courts nationwide.

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