Class action lawsuits often get a bad reputation as serving nobody due to the often low damages plaintiffs receive. However, they are a very strong way to make change happen. It is very hard to fight a large corporation on your own, but by banding together with others, it makes your case stronger and increases the chances that you can hold the offending party accountable.
The bottom line for class action lawsuits is to cause change and prevent issues from happening again in the future. There are a few different class action lawsuits in history that have reached this goal and helped to hold large corporations responsible for their actions.
SCANA Corp.
Work and Money explains that one top class action lawsuit occurred in the 2018 lawsuit against SCANA Corp. for excessive electric charges. The company lost money due to the bankruptcy of the construction company it hired to build a nuclear plant. It decided to make customers pay for the loss and they fought back to show large companies that they need to be accountable for their own bad business decisions.
Auto part manufacturers
Consumers again decided they were not going to let big companies take advantage of them when they filed a class action lawsuit against auto part makers wh0 were carrying on a price-fixing scheme.
Exxon Valdez
One of the most memorable lawsuits in the 1980s occurred when there was a huge oil spill off Alaska shores. Exxon Valdez had a tanker run ashore, causing the spill. People wanted the oil company to be accountable and it happened. This lawsuit also paved the way for the BP oil spill lawsuit about a decade later.
