Should I File a Class Action Lawsuit or a Private Civil Suit?
If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma and are considering bringing a lawsuit against the employers and manufacturers responsible for exposing you to asbestos, you may face the choice between joining a class action lawsuit or filing your own civil suit. An experienced California mesothelioma lawyer from Kazan, McClain, Lyons, Greenwood & Harley, PLC can help you decide after examining the facts and detail of your case and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of class actions with you.
Private civil lawsuit advantages and disadvantages
Private civil lawsuits against employers and manufacturers responsible for asbestos exposure have some advantages over class action lawsuits:
- Potentially quicker settlements for those mesothelioma patients who put a premium on resolving their lawsuits as quickly as possible
- Individual consideration of the details of your case
- Direct contact with the lawyer representing you
But private civil lawsuits have some disadvantages as well. Sometimes the complexity of mesothelioma case histories, the difficulty of tracking down defendants, and the obscurity of records that show asbestos exposure make it difficult for one California asbestos attorney, working alone, to obtain all of the information needed to generate the best settlement or judgment for their client.
Class action lawsuit advantages and disadvantages
Class action lawsuits offer many advantages that private civil suits do not. Those advantages all boil down to strength in numbers:
- Lawyers and law firms representing tens, hundreds, or even thousands of plaintiffs usually have more net resources: individual lawyers can pool research, draw on each other’s knowledge and create more complete historical records when they work with the histories of many clients.
- Class actions allow injured people to pursue claims that might not be worth it on their own: patients with the rare benign mesothelioma or mild asbestosis certainly deserve compensation for their exposure and illness, but they will probably get a better settlement as part of a group effort than on their own.
A skilled California asbestos lawyer knows whether a class action or an individual lawsuit makes more sense for you. Class action lawsuits often draw more public attention and more media interest than private lawsuits, creating more pressure on the defendants to behave reasonably and settle high.
Work with an experienced mesothelioma attorney
At Kazan, McClain, Lyons, Greenwood & Harley, PLC, we have more than 35 years of experience representing mesothelioma patients against the employers and manufacturers who recklessly exposed them to asbestos. If you or a loved one recently received a mesothelioma diagnosis, we invite you to visit us in our Oakland, California offices, call us at 1-866-804-2311, or contact us online. Please contact us today to arrange a free initial consultation and discuss the details of your case.
