Not necessarily. In many class action lawsuits, the company being sued will be faced with many lawsuits, both class action and individual. Generally, the class action cases end up receiving the greatest amount of damages to disburse to the members of the class. In many cases, you are less likely to have the money run out before you are compensated if you are part of a class.

Do not be surprised, however, if your attorney recommends that parts of your lawsuit are handled as class actions while other parts are handled as individual lawsuits. For example, the best way to get any damages out of an asbestos manufacturer that is close to bankruptcy may be to join a class action where everyone will get some amount. The position that the party being sued finds itself in has a great deal to do with a determination of whether to go with a class action or an individual action.

Class actions generally result in overall smaller damage awards to all members of the class. However, if a class action has already been filed and you can still join or if a class action is about to be filed and you can still join, you may be better off joining as once the class action is finished, there may not be any money left in the company to compensate those who have filed individual actions and, if you are a member of the class, you will at least receive something.

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If a company has not yet been hit with a class action, if the company has extremely deep pockets so that the proposed class action won’t take up all the money, or if your particular case involves damages that are highly unusual and go well beyond what others in a class might be compensated for, your attorney may recommend filing an individual action.

Awards on individual cases are completely based on the circumstances of that particular case and what jurisdiction the case is brought in. Therefore, the following examples of awards in asbestos exposure cases are for your information only and should not be relied on by you in terms of what you can necessarily expect in your case.

• New York - $19.5 million

• Texas - $11.1 million

• Minnesota - $8 million

• Illinois - $34.5 million ($9.1 million in compensatory damages, $25.4 million in punitive damages)

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