Advantages
Unions and employee benefit funds derive several advantages by bringing carefully chosen class action suits:
- class actions offer a more potent attack on lawbreakers than individual cases;
- they are an important way in which trustees can fulfill their fiduciary duties;
- bringing such cases shows participants and beneficiaries that the trustees are vigorously protecting the assets of the fund;
- such cases demonstrate to fund vendors that the trustees will not accept overcharges or unconscionable conduct with respect to goods and services purchased by the fund;
- they do not require any expenditure of fund monies, since the work is performed on a contingent fee basis, with all fees and costs paid out of any recovery; and
- they give the trustees greater control over litigation affecting its participants and beneficiaries.