Class Actions are thought of only as a phenomenon in the United States and was that way for a long time. However, as the globalization train has picked up, the method has gained popularity in many countries that once rejected it. In addition, the litigation finance train which started in Australia, reached some countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Canada is now pretty mainstream in the United States. Recently, Yahoo Finance Canada posted a video titled The “basics of class action lawsuits” about how these lawsuits work in Canada.
There is a connection between these two industries because they are both used in pursuing justice for plaintiffs in courts. A class action can help organize claims made by different plaintiffs against one defendant. There are some plaintiffs from the group that are named “lead plaintiffs” and they represent the group in court along with their attorneys. The courts have to approve the class action before it moves forward and once the class action is filed the individuals in the lawsuit are not able to file their own individual claim. It can also help plaintiffs in their cases in court because more people show a consistent pattern.Class actions rely on that old adage strength in numbers. There are studies about different continents countries like South Africa adopting class actions in their own legal systems.In 2007, Stanford Law School released a report titled Class Actions, Collective Actions, and Group Litigation: A Status Report. It covered different aspects of group litigations in different parts of the world. Courts all over the world are grappling with the issues of organization and group damages as the world continues to be interconnected. Many countries are adopting class action style litigation or group litigation. One of the recent example is the class action against Mastercard. Class actions are different from multi-district litigations (MDLs) because the MDL is a court procedure used to organize different plaintiffs with similar claims against one defendant. Those claims are directed into one court to prevent the judicial system from being clogged.
Litigation Finance can also help class action lawsuits because some providers of that funding are able to help plaintiffs financially while the cases get sorted out. The industry has grown beyond its nascent beginnings in Australia and New Zealand. It is now a global business with different operators in areas like Latin America, France, South Africa, and the United States. In addition, litigation finance companies have developed for different stages of the legal procedure. There are now litigation funding companies that do arbitration funding, judgment funding, verdict funding, structured settlement funding, post-settlement, pre-settlement, and case cost funding. These companies can even finance litigation before in the beginning stages.
As the class action and litigation finance industries continue to grow and evolve, guidelines and best practices are being developed through education. Beard Group, Inc. is holding their 3rd annual conference called “Class Action Money & Ethics 2019 Aligning Interests & Optimizing Outcomes in Class Action Litigation” in New York City on May 6th.
About RapidFunds
RapidFunds provides post-settlement funding to plaintiffs’ attorneys with fees in settled class action cases.The company also provides case cost funding to plaintiffs’ attorneys for their current and future case expenses in class actions. Interested plaintiffs’ attorneys can fill out an application on our website or complete the application here. For more information about post-settlement funding, case cost finance, and the funding process call 888-927-9500 or email info@rapidfunds.com.