Experienced Representation For Class Action Lawsuits
Large corporations in America engage in unlawful practices, confident that their massive financial and legal resources will silence dissenting voices. They use an army of highly paid lawyers to drag out the case and whittle down the damage to a mere pittance.
That’s why it’s advisable to defer to a class action lawsuit to even the scales if a powerful corporation’s misdeed harms you. Under the stewardship of a skilled class actions attorney in Los Angeles, a class action lawsuit can help you protect and fight for your rights.
At the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman in Woodland Hills, we are dedicated to helping consumers in California and throughout the nation protect their rights. We have the experience, the resources, the workforce, and organizational skills to handle class action lawsuits with millions of plaintiffs.
We pursue class action lawsuits against large corporations and other entities to tip the scales in your favor with a particular focus on:
- Employment law: Wrongful termination, retaliation, sexual harassment, discrimination, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), hostile work environment, wage and hour laws, and misclassification.
- Consumer rights: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Employment Class Actions
An employment class action lawsuit is a court case launched on behalf of multiple plaintiffs making identical claims from their employer. Typically, such lawsuits arise from unfair practices that affect a significant portion of its workforce. Class action lawsuits stem from employment law violations such as workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, overtime disputes, and more.
Employment class action lawsuits are on the rise as employees step up to deter their employers from violating labor laws in the future. Some of the common grounds for employment class actions include:
Wage and Hour Laws
Wage and hour laws are a component of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and they dictate the minimum wages payable to workers and their working hours. All public agencies and commercial businesses must follow these laws that require them to pay a fair minimum wage.
The minimum wage and overtime laws are popular labor law provisions enforced by the Department of labor. These laws specify how much you should be paid for your job and how many hours you should work. Labor laws allow employees to sue employers who fail to comply with the labor laws and pursue compensation.
Meals and Rest Breaks
Meals and rest breaks are contentious issues. There are no federal laws requiring companies in the US to provide meal and rest breaks. That means meals and rest breaks and their duration varies between states. Some states have laws mandating employers to provide meal and rest breaks, while others don’t.
In California, workers who work consecutively for more than 5 hours are entitled to a 30-minute meal break. Employers should provide a second meal break of at least 30 minutes to workers who work for more than 10 hours a day. If your employer chooses to provide meal and break rests yet fails to avail them, they’re culpable of an FLSA violation. Employers can hold such an errant employer liable through a class action lawsuit.
Employee Misclassification
Employee misclassification is the unlawful designation of workers as independent contractors instead of employees. Misclassification enables employers to deny their workers the legal protection afforded to employees. Independent contractors are not subject to wage and hour laws, entitled to worker compensation, and unemployment benefits. The practice allows corporations to reduce their labor and tax burden at the expense of their employees. If your employer accidentally or deliberately misclassifies employees, you can hold them accountable and pursue damages.
Collective Action vs Class Action
Collective and class action help employees address workplace violations, but their due process concerns are remarkably different. All similarly affected employees aren’t automatically included in collective action. Workers wishing to join the collective action must submit a consent form to be bound by its outcome. Those who fail to join are not bound by its outcome and may not collect the proceeds.
In contrast, a class action lawsuit covers every worker similarly affected or injured by the company. Once the class action suit is certified, employees in the similarly affected group receive a notice. The notice informs them they’re in the purported class unless they opt-out of the class action lawsuit.
Consumer Rights Class Actions
Consumer rights class actions are initiated by a few plaintiffs on behalf of a bigger group of people who’ve been injured by the actions or conduct of the company. Such cases often involve thousands of consumers and are filed to remedy various wrongdoings.
They often cover deceptive advertising, unfair business practices, defective products, unfair contracts. The class action procedure allows consumers to lodge claims against massive corporations despite their larger financial and legal resources. Some of the common ground for consumer rights class action lawsuits include:
Collection Practice Violations
The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) governs the conduct of debt collectors and debt buying agencies. The FDCPA ensures these businesses don’t employ deceptive, abusive, and unfair practices when collecting payments. It prohibits them from using debt collection practices that abuse, harass, or oppress consumers.
Unfortunately, debt collectors are not above making false and misleading representations or using unfair means to collect a debt. If you believe that a debt collector has violated the FDCPA provisions, you can sue them in court and recover damages.
Credit Reporting
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report from the three national credit bureaus each year. The Act also gives you a right to dispute errors and omissions on your credit report and have bureaus respond to your concerns. Errors in a credit report can have far-reaching financial consequences.
If a credit reporting company fails to correct any errors in your credit report, they have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and your consumer rights. At the Law Offices of Todd M. Freidman, we have a long track record of helping clients dispute credit reporting errors and holding the credit bureaus accountable.
Robocalls & Telemarketers
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) protects consumers from unwanted solicitation such as telemarketers, robocalls, autodials, text messages. The Act created a National Do Not Call database and allows consumers to avoid solicitation by enrolling in the registry. It also provides a playbook that marketing companies should follow.
Unfortunately, some marketing companies ignore the Do Not Call Registry and TCPA altogether to initiate unlawful contact. You can sue telemarketers, debt collectors, banks, and retailers if they violate your rights. A class action lawsuit can hold these companies liable for their unlawful deeds and net you as much as $1,500 per violation.
California Privacy Law Violations
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) gives Californians greater control over their personal information. In California, you can request a business to disclose the personal information they’ve collected from you. You can ask them not to sell your information or have them delete it altogether.
Some businesses fail to comply with the CCPA regulations, resulting in a major privacy violation. Class actions lawsuits are an excellent way to pursue compensations, hold the company accountable and force a policy change.
False Advertising
California has the Unfair Competition Law (the UCL) that allows other businesses and consumers to hold a business accountable for making misleading, inaccurate, or exaggerated claims about a product or service to boost sales. These California consumer protection laws allow you to sue companies engaging in false advertising methods such as deceptive descriptions, pricing, quantities, comparisons, or warrants to mislead consumers.
The federal consumer protection laws prohibit businesses from making false claims about their products and services. The federal Lanham Act permits civil lawsuits against companies that use false advertising to misrepresent their product’s quality, characteristics, or geographic origins. States also enforce laws to combat false advertising and other dubious trade practices. For instance, California uses civil and criminal enforcement to deter untrue and misleading information in advertising.
How many people are needed for a class actions lawsuit?
There’s no official limit to the number of people needed for a class action lawsuit. The payout spectrum in class actions is broad and could range from a few dollars to millions. A judge must certify a class action, and most may require such as case to have northward of 40 plaintiffs.
Is it worth joining a class action lawsuit?
It’s worth becoming a class member in a lawsuit against a company or a product that harmed you. If a class action lawsuit succeeds, every class member is entitled to compensation without going through the motions of a typical claim case or going to court. Since the lawyers work contingency, joining class-action lawsuits is free of charge and won’t burden you with huge legal bills.
How much money can you make from a class action lawsuit?
Class-action lawsuits often have multi-million-dollar settlements. Nera Economic Consulting estimates the average payout for class-action cases in 2020 to be $44 million. Naturally, the money is divided among the class members and their lawyers who work on contingency.
In a lawsuit with a few class members, plaintiffs can come away with a huge payout that could run into hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars. Typically, the payout whittles down to a few dollars each if the case has millions of members.
Get the Class Action Lawsuit You Need from the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman in Los Angeles, CA
If your employer or a corporation has harmed you and you believe that others are in the same boat, you may be entitled to receive damage for the wrongdoing. Speak to our skilled class actions Attorney in Los Angeles, and we’ll help you determine if you have a viable case.
At the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, we have the skills, experience, resources, and expertise to lodge any consumer and employment class action lawsuit.
Schedule a free consultation today.
