Rule 23.Class actions

A class action lets a handful of named plaintiffs stand in for a much larger group of people whose claims are similar enough to resolve together. Rule 23 does not hand that power out automatically. Every proposed class action must first clear four prerequisites: the class has to be so large that joining every member individually would be impracticable; there must be questions of law or fact common to the class; the named representatives' claims or defenses must be typical of the class as a whole; and those representatives must be capable of protecting the class's interests adequately throughout the case. A case that fails any one of these four requirements cannot proceed as a class action.

Clearing those four hurdles is only the first step — the case must also fit one of three categories in Rule 23(b). The first covers situations where separate lawsuits by individual class members would risk inconsistent rulings that create conflicting standards of conduct, or would as a practical matter decide the rights of class members who are not even part of those separate suits. The second covers cases where the opposing party has acted, or refused to act, on grounds that apply to the whole class, making class-wide injunctive or declaratory relief the appropriate remedy — common in civil-rights and consumer-protection style disputes. The third and most commonly litigated category requires the court to find that common questions predominate over questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is the superior way to resolve the controversy, weighing factors like how much individual class members want to control their own litigation, how much related litigation already exists, whether concentrating the case in one court makes sense, and how hard the class action will be to manage.

Once a class action is filed, the court has to decide as soon as practical whether the case will proceed as a class action, and that certification decision can be conditional and revised before the case is decided on the merits. For the predominance-and-superiority category under Rule 23(b)(3), the court must send the best notice practical under the circumstances, including individual notice to anyone who can be identified through reasonable effort, telling class members they can opt out by a set date, that the judgment will bind everyone who does not opt out, and that they can appear through their own counsel if they choose. Whatever the outcome, the final judgment has to identify who counts as a class member, and courts can certify a class on particular issues only, or split a class into subclasses handled separately, when that fits the case better. Along the way, the court can issue case-management orders covering everything from how evidence gets presented to what notice goes out and what conditions apply to the representatives. Because a class action affects people who are not directly managing their own case, Rule 23(e) requires court approval before a class action can be dismissed or settled, and notice of any proposed dismissal or settlement has to go out to the class first.