A lawsuit filed by one or more plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group of people who have similar claims against the same defendant. Class actions allow numerous small claims to be consolidated into a single, more efficient legal proceeding.
From Latin 'classis' (group or division) and 'actio' (legal proceeding). The modern class action developed in 20th-century American law to address situations where individual lawsuits would be impractical due to small damages or large numbers of affected parties.
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