Recently it seems that you cannot turn on the television without seeing a advertisement advising you to contact a personal injury attorney if you or a loved one have suffered bodily injury or death while taking a certain drug, or using a certain product. Defective drugs and products are, unfortunately, quite common in this day and age, and when their use seems to cause death or permanent injury for a large number of people in the United States, the case is best handled via a Class Action Lawsuit.

Generally speaking, a Class Action case is a lawsuit that is first brought about by the injury or death of at least one plaintiff, and expanded to include an initially indeterminate amount of other plaintiffs because the probability of a large number of people who have also been affected by the same defective product, or product exists.

Discovery in a Class Action lawsuit can take a number of years, for each prospective co-plaintiff must be identified, and their injuries recorded. In the process of discovery, as the numbers of registered co-plaintiffs continues to grow, the possibility is greater that the defendant will offer a settlement out of court.

If the defendant offers a settlement, there is no way of knowing how much each member of the class action will receive until the exact number of plaintiffs who choose to accept the settlement is known. However, when a proposed settlement exists, the identified members of a Class Action lawsuit will be notified of same, and will be given a certain amount of time to either accept the settlement, and their portion thereof, or reject it, and forfeit their portion, while retaining the right to pursue their own civil lawsuit against the defendant. Upon approval of the settlement by a Court of Law, the members of a class action lawsuit, who have committed to accept the settlement, will be entitled to their portion of it.