One of the number one ways in which groups of people can all be adversely affected by the same or similar circumstances is through consumption or purchase of consumer products that are marketed nationwide or even statewide. When a product is manufactured and distributed to retail stores belviq class action lawsuit across the country or even multiple businesses within one or a few states, there is great potential for that product to influence those who use it. While this fact is not alarming assuming that the product is safe and user friendly, it can be a potentially major problem when it is manufactured and distributed as a defective good. Consumers who are unaware of an item’s faulty aspects may unknowingly purchase the item and immediately put it to use, never suspecting that they could be harmed by using their recent purchase.
Class action lawsuits are legal pursuits that are meant to represent a number of different individuals who collectively come together in order to legally file a claim or lawsuit against an offending company, business, etc. It can be difficult to portray the totality of a series of small lawsuits that are all connected to the same incidence. Combining similar lawsuits to unite as one large class action suit is often much more effective in portraying the major impact that a faulty or fraudulent product played in the lives of the consumers who trustingly used the defective products that ended up harming them. Consumer class action lawsuits of this nature are governed by a strict set of federal rules of procedure which state that class actions may be brought to the federal court level if the claims made fall under federal law. When class actions are brought for a nationwide offense it must be proven that the offense was commonly felt in similar ways across state lines.
When consumer lawsuits are brought before a federal court it is not uncommon for them to be consolidated (pretrial) via multidistrict litigation (MDL). In many cases, a class action suit may begin in the state court, where it was originally filed, and then make its way up to the federal level. It has been speculated that, in general, state courts present more favorable outcomes for plaintiffs, while federal courts may present more favorable outcomes for defendants. However, this is not always the case and each lawsuit will greatly depend on the specific circumstances of the case and the ways in which they are handled by the attorney(s) representing the class action suit.