What Is Class Certification?

Class certification is a court order allowing a lawsuit to proceed as a class action, with the named plaintiffs representing everyone in the defined class. Until a class is certified, the case is legally just a dispute between the named parties.

Why it matters when you file a claim

Certification is often the turning point of a case. Once a class is certified, the defendant faces potential liability to the whole group, which often encourages settlement. If certification is denied, the case may shrink to a few individual claims or end entirely, and there may be no settlement for you to claim.

Many settlements you see are approved with a class certified for settlement purposes only. In that situation, the court reviews the class requirements as part of the settlement approval process.

What courts look at

In federal court, judges apply Rule 23. The party seeking certification must show:

• ✓Numerosity: the class is too large for everyone to join individually.
• ✓Commonality: there are shared questions of law or fact.
• ✓Typicality: the representatives' claims are typical of the class.
• ✓Adequacy: the representatives and their lawyers will protect the class fairly.
• ✓For most money-damages cases, also predominance and superiority.

A simple example

A group of customers sues a lender over a fee charged under the same contract terms. The judge reviews evidence and finds that the same contract and fee applied to everyone, so the key questions can be answered for all customers at once. The judge certifies the class, and notice goes out to customers explaining their right to opt out.

State courts have their own certification rules, many modeled on the federal rule, so the details can vary.

Certification and notice

Certifying a class usually triggers notice to class members. For damages classes, that notice must explain the case in plain language and tell you that you can ask to be excluded. That is why you may sometimes receive a notice about a lawsuit that hasn't settled: it tells you a class has been certified and gives you the choice to stay in or opt out. A later notice will follow if the case settles.

You don't need to follow a case through certification to benefit from it. SettleScout watches for settlements that reach the claims stage and alerts you when one matches the services you use.