class action

noun

Definition of class action

: a legal action undertaken by one or more plaintiffs on behalf of themselves and all other persons having an identical interest in the alleged wrong

Examples of class action in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The class action civil rights lawsuit alleges that multiple costumed members of staff at the Sesame Street themed amusement park ignored a 5-year-old Black girl during a meet-and-greet in June. — Justine Browning, EW.com, 28 July 2022 The firm is seeking to have the case certified as a class action, estimating the total value at $5 million for customers, not including interest or fees. — Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press, 11 July 2022 And what, what the, the plaintiffs seek to be a class action. — Laura Johnston, cleveland, 2 June 2022 The Major League Baseball has agreed to pay $185 million to current and former minor league baseball players to settle a federal class action lawsuit alleging violations of minimum wage laws. — Nicole Acevedo, NBC News, 16 July 2022 At the time, Serova filed a class action lawsuit for violations of the Unfair Competition Law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act due to claims that Jackson was misrepresented as the tracks' singer, according to Variety and Billboard. — Angie Orellana Hernandez, USA TODAY, 6 July 2022 In May 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed against Ignatova, OneCoin and several other OneCoin executives. — Fortune, 30 June 2022 The bZx folks did not make good the losses, and so some of the depositors started a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the South District of California. — Jay Adkisson, Forbes, 27 June 2022 The Biden administration is canceling the federal student debt of borrowers who say their schools defrauded them, settling a class action lawsuit originally filed against the Trump administration. — CBS News, 23 June 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'class action.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

1 Aug 2022

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“Class action.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/class%20action. Accessed 8 Aug. 2022.

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More Definitions for class action

class action

noun

Legal Definition of class action

: an action in which a representative plaintiff sues or a representative defendant is sued on behalf of a class of plaintiffs or defendants who have the same interests in the litigation as their representative and whose rights or liabilities can be more efficiently determined as a group than in a series of individual suits

— called also class action suit, class suit

— see also certification — compare consolidate, joinder, test case at case

Note: Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure sets out the prerequisites for having an action certified as a class action in federal court. Section (a) permits a class action if “(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.” If the action satisfies these requirements, it must then fit into one of three categories: (1) where individual litigation would have varying results requiring the opposing party to act inconsistently toward the class members or would affect the interests of class members who are not parties to the individual action; (2) where the opposing party has acted or refused to act on grounds that are applicable to the class members as a whole and therefore injunctive or declaratory relief with respect to the class members as a whole is appropriate; or, (3) where the questions of law or fact common to the class members outweigh questions that apply to only particular individuals so that a class action is the best method to determine respective rights and liabilities. Using these guidelines, the judge will decide if an action should be certified as a class action.