Class action lawsuits have been a staple in the property litigation arena for decades and it is very rare to hear about a lawsuit that requires proof. The most common requirement for class-action lawsuits is that a plaintiff must be able to prove that he or she has been the victim of an injury, which usually requires medical records. Many people are surprised to learn that medical records cannot be submitted as evidence if a class action lawsuit is filed without a lawyer. There are exceptions to this rule when a plaintiff has a financial stake in the case being litigated.
No Proof of Class Action Lawsuit
When litigants do not have proof of their claim they often resort to “all or nothing” settlements. These settlements often force plaintiffs to accept less than what they are owed in compensation. This can lead to further erosion of the rights of ordinary citizens. The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions illustrates the danger of corporations moving forward with mergers and acquisitions without providing any proof of whether or not they will successfully execute the transaction. Without hard evidence many of these transactions are on the brink of default and can lead to immediate foreclosure proceedings for the nonperforming party.
The threat of default is one of the main reasons that class action lawsuits are generally filed in Florida.
The lack of hard evidence has led to foreclosures on homes in Florida and across the country. This threat of immediate foreclosure is a frequent catalyst for filing a lawsuit, but without proof of default it is difficult to get either a lawsuit loan or the cash needed to file the complaint. This presents a very serious problem for plaintiffs who do not have access to any outside funding sources to bring their lawsuit forward.
Another common issue in class action lawsuits involves plaintiffs being required to submit additional proof of their injuries before they can recover any damages.
The difficulty of proving the type of injury associated with the injury without specific medical records makes obtaining the evidence from another party impossible. For these plaintiffs, proof of the existence and/or location of the injury, as well as the existence and location of other similar injuries are often necessary to move forward with their claims.
The existence of a class action lawsuit and proof of whether or not the defendant is guilty are not limited to Florida.
No proof is required to bring a case against an individual defendant in a civil or criminal matter. Personal injury cases are one of the few exceptions. In order to bring such a case against a Florida defendant, plaintiffs must first prove liability, which is typically determined by a preponderance of the evidence. This burden of proof requirement is different from other types of liability cases, and there are no facts determining the likelihood of the defendant being found liable beyond a preponderance of the evidence standard.
The courts have been reluctant to recognize plaintiffs’ rights to retain expert witnesses to provide expert testimony about the cause of their injury without any proof of liability.
Plaintiffs often are able to obtain expert testimony concerning the likely result if they file a lawsuit that involves a Florida activity, without proving any sort of liability on the part of the defendant. Such lawsuits usually involve an employer who fails to properly train his employees, a manufacturer who manufactures a product that causes a physical defect that causes personal injury, or an injury victim who sues a manufacturer for medical malpractice.
