Starting A Class Action
It can be hard being the little guy. Even if you make a good salary every year, odds are at some point that you have become aware of how very little you can do when wrong comes your way. You may have become sick after eating some bad food in a restaurant, or you may have been disappointed in a service you were contracting. Manufacturing, companies and other big businesses just seem to have no fear of the little guy, and that is largely due to the fact that they know you can't afford to fight the small injustice in court. Enter the class action lawsuit. You personally might not be able to foot the lawyer's bill after you find out that there were lead particles in your bread. However, you do know that if they were present in your bread, it is more than likely they are in other loaves as well. You have the makings of a class action lawsuit on your hands, and we are going to take a look at ways to start one. We have already touched on the topic above. The very first step in launching a class action lawsuit is to identify the fact that your problem probably has a lot more than just one victim. A malfunctioning machine could have resulted in a pollution of the water supply in your neighbourhood; therefore, all your neighbours are victims as well. It's time to find a lawyer, the second step in starting a class action. They may be hard to find in real life, living in a fancy condo far removed from most of us, but when it comes to business you will find there are more lawyers out there than you can shake a stick at. You want to start your search centered on those lawyers who specialize in class action. Then, narrow the list down to lawyers who have specific experience pursuing suits similar to yours. What constitutes a similar suit? Well, a lawyer that has a history of going after big industry would be ideal in the case of our broken machine mentioned above. A lawyer who has tried cases stemming from human rights violations would be contacted for similar cases, and so on. Once you find that lawyer, let him or her know that you want to launch a class action suit. Remember that currently, only eight of the ten provinces allow class action suits. They are BC, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland/Labrador, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. That means you won't find any lawyers practicing this type of suit in PEI or Nova Scotia. Many times, lawyers who take on class action suits do so at no base fee, claiming a percentage if they win the case. That means you have to expect the legal eagle you contact to be discerning; if you have no case she will let you know. Whether you are seeking justice for falling prey to an Internet scam ("This
is the best home based business EVER!") or an illness resulting from malpractice,
a class action suit may be your best shot at seeing justice. Starting one is
relatively simple, as long as your lawyer believes you have a case! |
