Class Action vs Mass Action suits/ some excerpts from http://sullolaw.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-depuy-hip-recall-wont-be-action.html

When a class action lawsuit is filing, it must name one or several plaintiffs on the behalf of a proposed "class" of people. The "class" of people are individuals or business entities who have suffered a common injury or injuries.

Class actions must include a group of individuals with similar damages. Though all the people who received an ASR XL Acetabular System and a notification of the DePuy hip recall have the same hip implant, the injuries they have suffered are extremely wide and varied.

In a mass action lawsuit, most lawyers will agree to bring the case on a contingent fee basis, which means that you owe nothing if the case is lost. The lawyer takes the risk of funding the case up front in exchange for a portion of the awarded compensation at the conclusion of the case.

This is also true for class actions, with one significant difference: there are limits on the percentage of the compensation a lawyer is permitted to recoup at the conclusion of the case in mass action cases. In most states, the limits are between 30-40% of the total compensation. Though that number may seem high, recall that the lawyer is funding the case throughout the time period it is being brought, which may be years. The lawyer is taking significant risk and asking for no fees until the case is successfully concluded.

In most cases, Mass Tort claims are brought when consumers are injured on a large scale by defective drugs or defective products. Drugs and product defects can cause a wide range of problems for different individuals, so all cases rarely fit into a single class.

Connie