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Class Action Litigation
About Class Actions
A class action lawsuit
was filed on behalf of class members on October 26, 2005. A
Certification Hearing is scheduled to be heard in February 2010.
A class action is a
legal device allowing one person to sue as a plaintiff on behalf of
all persons likely to have experienced the same injury. Class actions
are often brought against corporations, such as telephone companies
and credit card companies and banks, when they overcharge or otherwise
mistreat many customers in the same way. They are brought against the
manufacturers of defective products. They may also be brought against
a company or its officers on behalf of a class of shareholders in the
company. Examples include:
- thousands of
consumers purchase or use the same defective product;
- a telephone
company, credit card company or bank overcharges thousands of
customers pursuant to the same policy;
- employees
experience age, sex or race discrimination;
- a drug or medicine
used by many patients is suspected of having dangerous side effects;
- purchasers of a
company's stock or securities are injured because the company made
fraudulent representations about its products or business prospects;
- consumers pay
higher prices because of the anti-trust activities of large
corporations;
A class action
promotes two principal goals. It provides a useful mechanism for
prosecuting the claims of many people whose injuries added together
are significant, but which, individually, would not be large enough to
justify the expense of bringing individual lawsuits. It also
prevents the clogging of the court system by allowing similar
claims of thousands of individuals to be adjudicated in one single
action.
No. Generally, a
class action is proper only where the issues common to the class
outweigh the issues which are unique to individual members of the
class. Each case presented by a potential client is reviewed carefully
for its suitability as a class action proceeding. Then, after the case
is filed, the court determines whether it fulfills all the
requirements of a class action, and whether the defined class may be
"certified."
In class actions, the
expenses of the litigation are provided at no cost to the plaintiff
and class members. Lawyers' fees and expenses are paid by the
defendant at the successful conclusion of the case. Even then, the
court must approve the firm's fees as reasonable in light of the
benefit obtained for the class.
Generally, no. In
most consumer and investor class actions, after the court certifies the
case as a class action, members of the defined class are given an
opportunity to "opt out" and pursue individual actions against the
defendant, if they so prefer. If, however, class members choose not to
opt out, they are bound by the results of the case and automatically
share in any recovery obtained for the class. There are exceptions to
this general rule, such as when the relief sought is primarily
injunctive and not monetary, where the court may certify the class on
a "non-opt-out" basis.
(If you have any
questions please click here.)
Areas Of Investigation
Please contact
Michael Munro, without obligation, if you have encountered a
business practice you would like him to investigate. He can
investigate unfair, deceptive and unlawful business practices,
including:
Consumer Protection
- Fraudulent credit
repair schemes
- Adulterated
products, or defective products
- Deceptive
advertising
- Unfair debt
collections practices
- Unlawful retention
of security deposits
Securities &
Corporate Governance
- Misrepresentations
or failure to disclose relevant information to shareholders and the
investing public
- Breach of
fiduciary duty injuring categories of shareholders in mergers
- Corporate waste
Consumer Financial
Services
- Failure to
disclose the applicable rates and terms to borrowers
- Late posting of
payments
- Failure to provide
credit on the terms promised
- Predatory lending
- Wrongful
assessment of fees
Antitrust
- Collusion among
competitors to fix prices
- Schemes to affect
relationships along a stream of distribution
- Attempts to
monopolize an industry
Telecommunications
- Overcharging of
long distance customers, who are promised a low rate, but then
billed at a higher rate
- Failure to deliver
promised rebates
- Slamming -
switching phone service without permission
- Cramming - adding
unauthorized charges to the phone bill
This is only a
partial list of the practices that can be investigated. If you have
information relating to a similar practice, or to another practice
which you believe to be an unfair, deceptive or unlawful business
practice, please contact Michael Munro at the address at the bottom
of the page.
For further
information, or to report an unfair business practice, please click
here.
Serving Consumers
Nationwide
Michael Munro
prosecutes class actions and private actions on behalf of a wide range
of clients. He prides himself on his ability to provide the highest
quality legal representation whether on a contingency fee basis, block
fee or hourly retainer .
A typical
client may be someone who has experienced deceptive or abusive
business practices in the areas of personal financial services,
insurance, telecommunications or in the sale of products or
securities. Typical wrongdoers are credit card companies, banks that
mislead as to terms or fail to deliver the rates promised, mortgage
lenders that charge unlawful fees, insurance companies that charge
unlawful fees, long distance carriers that assess unlawful charges,
and manufacturers of defective and dangerous consumer products.
When you contact
Michael Munro concerning a case, he will investigate the matter and
make appropriate recommendations. If he agrees to undertake
representation, and you authorizes him to proceed, he will file the
case in the appropriate court. In some situations, he will undertake
to pay all the costs of the litigation and not to charge you for his
services unless he obtains a recovery. In such situations, he will
obtain his fees from the money paid by the defendant at the successful
conclusion of the case.
If you would like
to discuss the services offered, or would like to investigate a
potential case, please click
here
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