California  |  Personal Injury

Re: Class Action Question

You can search the Clerk's offices in all of of the counties in the State. You can proably do this yourself on line for a fee. Or you can have an attorney or private investigator do it for you for a fee.

Re: Class Action Question

Also, try to find an attorney, group of attorneys, law professor who handle this type of litigation and ask them. You might not get a complete list. Try calling the information officer at both departments and see if they will give you any information [can not hurt to try]. If none of that works, call up a firm that specializes in class actions and see if they have or know of such a list. But first go to an attorney for a free initial consultion and find out if you really have a case.

Even if you do, a class action is only when all members of the same group suffer similar injuries from the same act or series of acts. So suits about a company's stock being manipulated can be class actions, but the individual acts of one stock broker cheating you likely will not qualify as a class action. Remember also that in the typical class action, the lead plaintiff often gets very little in that a largely non-monetary settlement is worked out, there are large overhead costs to notify everyone, and what little cash is generated is substantially eaten away by attorney fees.

It probably also takes the case much longer to be resolved, limits you choice of attorneys since most can not afford to handle class actions, and somewhat turns you into a number for your attorney as opposed to his/her individual client.

Re: Class Action Question

Follow the excellent advice of Mr. Shers and Mr. Roth.