Every person has the right to be heard by skilled judges who will see justice done. This includes individuals who have been wronged by corporations and businesses that violate consumer protection laws.
Class action lawsuits allow consumers to come together and collectively pursue legal action against a company. These lawsuits are often less expensive to litigate than individual cases.
Table of Contents
Natural Rights
Natural rights are moral rights that everyone has simply because they are human. They are unaffected by any culture or government’s laws or customs and are fundamental to a person’s existence. They are sometimes called “inalienable rights,” meaning they cannot be taken away.
This idea of natural rights was mainly developed in the early modern period by philosophers. It was a crucial part of social contract theory, which examined the origins of society and considered whether individuals voluntarily renounced some of their natural rights to have their remaining rights protected by law and the rule of government.
The 17th-century English philosopher identified the three most important natural rights as the right to life, liberty, and property. He argued that people have a fundamental right to these things because God creates them and has the spark of divinity within them. He also argued that if a person was stripped of these natural rights, they have no reason to submit to a magistrate or ruler’s authority and should rebel against the power of a government.
Natural rights are sometimes compared to civil rights, but the two concepts differ. Civil rights are granted to a person by law in the government and society where they live so that they can change over time. They include the right to free speech, freedom of religion, and protection against discrimination based on age, gender, sex, race, or disability.
Social Contracts
The social contract theory says that people agree to live under specific rules. The social contracts people decide to can include anything from the laws and regulations governing society to how communities are structured.
Individuals have a right to enforce those contracts when they are violated. Generally speaking, the best way to bring legal action is through class actions that involve groups of plaintiffs. One of the biggest reasons for this is that it often makes more financial sense to pursue class action investigations than to bring multiple individual lawsuits. For instance, a bank that charges illegal fees of hundreds of dollars to millions of customers may find it uneconomical for each customer to sue the bank. However, a class-action case seeking several hundred million dollars in damages on behalf of all consumers might compel the bank to change its business practices in the future.
The idea of the social contract can vary between different societies. For example, it places more emphasis on individual rights than other countries. These underlying preferences are reflected in public policy, regulatory frameworks, and approaches to providing public goods such as health care, education, and national security. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected vulnerable parts of the population, bolstering awareness of inequality and urging society to rethink its social contracts.
Individual Rights
Individual rights provide moral protection for individuals against unchosen and characteristically harmful incursions by other people. These include invasions of personal privacy, trespassing in the physical space surrounding them, and spreading confidential information. Unlike negative rights, individual rights are a fundamentally positive concept that induces the formation of relationships between people and promotes complex and mutually advantageous social order.
Civil rights are a subset of individual rights, and they protect against abuses committed by the government. These are typically defined by a nation’s constitution or other laws. Individuals can also take legal action against private companies that violate civil rights.
Consumer class actions allow one aggrieved individual to challenge a business practice they believe is illegal on behalf of a large group of similar consumers. These cases are particularly effective when the damages sustained by a single individual would not be enough to warrant pursuing an individual patient.
If you think your rights have been violated, a knowledgeable attorney can explain your possible next steps and help you pursue justice. Their digital library includes hundreds of sample pleadings for use at every stage of a class action: complaint, remand motion, class discovery, class certification, consolidated trial plan, a statement by the named plaintiff of their duty to the class, and a co-counsel agreement.
Government
It is a fundamental principle that everyone has rights. Governments need to enact strong laws and ensure that they are enforced. Non-governmental actors also have a role to play. Businesses can proactively follow human rights guidelines and ensure their products do not negatively impact people or communities. People can also participate actively in civic life by participating in protests and community initiatives to hold governments accountable.
The ability to bring class action lawsuits is critical in some cases. Many companies engage in business practices that harm many consumers. These practices can cause significant damage that is impossible to recover from individually. The law allows aggrieved individuals to join a class action lawsuit and pursue legal action against the company for themselves and other victims.
As an agency responsible for consumer protection, they are concerned about class action settlements that do not adequately compensate injured consumers or are too costly to deter future violations. It is also worried about forum shopping and procedural rulings that increase the plaintiff’s bargaining power, so defendants may settle meritless claims or pay too much money in a class action. These issues are important because a society that takes its human rights seriously needs to find ways to ensure that the courts and other institutions enforce them. People can support these efforts by familiarizing themselves with international and national human rights frameworks and mechanisms. They can also become active participants in civic life by supporting and participating in protests, public hearings, and other community initiatives that raise awareness of human rights abuses and promote accountability.