Kurt Berger, Attorney at Law
CONSUMER LAW AND CLASS ACTIONS
Fighting for the Consumers!!
A class action lawsuit is an action filed on behalf of a group of plaintiffs who have all been harmed in the same way by the same person or company defendant. Generally, a class action is proper when numerous parties suffer injury of insufficient size to warrant individual action and when denial of class relief would result in unjust advantage to the wrondoer.
Typically, the class action plaintiffs do not have the resources to file a lawsuit, or the amount of money that is in question is not large enough to even warrant a lawsuit. For example, if a consumer is charged an additional $5.00 per month for something that he or she did not agree to, many people will not even notice it. If a wrongful charge is noticed, many businesses have people hired to engage the customer in circular conversations and explain why the charge has to be paid, even when the proported reason is nonsense. Still other businesses will take the tact that the customer better pay or suffer consequenses in the form of credit damage.
Businesses that profit by skimming small amounts of money from their customers rely on those customers not being able to fight back. Face it, individual lawsuits are too expensive to pursue. Small claims lawsuits for small amounts are too great a nuisance to deal with.
However, the law can be on your side. Since 1850, California law has provided for different ways to set right unfair treatment of consumers by the unscupulous, and there are a few statutes used to file class actions within the State. The result of a successful class action can be restitution of the money wrongfully taken, prohibition of the wrongful behavior, and in some cases damages paid to the plaintiff.
Call at (805) 473-1600 to discuss the possibilities, or email me at kurt@kurtbergerlaw.com.
Typically, the class action plaintiffs do not have the resources to file a lawsuit, or the amount of money that is in question is not large enough to even warrant a lawsuit. For example, if a consumer is charged an additional $5.00 per month for something that he or she did not agree to, many people will not even notice it. If a wrongful charge is noticed, many businesses have people hired to engage the customer in circular conversations and explain why the charge has to be paid, even when the proported reason is nonsense. Still other businesses will take the tact that the customer better pay or suffer consequenses in the form of credit damage.
Businesses that profit by skimming small amounts of money from their customers rely on those customers not being able to fight back. Face it, individual lawsuits are too expensive to pursue. Small claims lawsuits for small amounts are too great a nuisance to deal with.
However, the law can be on your side. Since 1850, California law has provided for different ways to set right unfair treatment of consumers by the unscupulous, and there are a few statutes used to file class actions within the State. The result of a successful class action can be restitution of the money wrongfully taken, prohibition of the wrongful behavior, and in some cases damages paid to the plaintiff.
Call at (805) 473-1600 to discuss the possibilities, or email me at kurt@kurtbergerlaw.com.
Google analytics
