Hello, I’m Zhan Qingyun.

Last time we explained expensive legal fees and the startling pay of corporate counsel. Does every excellent lawyer, young scholar, and law graduate defend large corporations? No.

Corporate firms are often called defense firms because they wait to be sued. On the other side are plaintiffs’ firms specializing in suing those corporations.

Do they therefore always embody justice and speak for the weak? Not necessarily.

Every profession has an internal hierarchy visible only to insiders. In American law, defense lawyers often look down on plaintiffs’ lawyers, who can represent the commercialization of law even more vividly. Why?

America has a distinctive procedure called the class action. Europe has no exact equivalent; China recognizes something similar in theory but rarely uses it in practice.

A class sues collectively. Suppose I break a bone, and a surgeon implants a metal pin to support it.

When worsening discomfort reveals that the pin is defective, investigation likely shows an entire production batch is faulty. The harm affects not one person but a group.

I can sue the manufacturer individually. More powerfully, a class action lets me act as representative and sue for everyone similarly affected.

The class does not require five hundred people to assemble outside court. If its existence can be established, one named plaintiff can represent people they have never met or identified individually.

The individual still conducts the lawsuit, but its scale and value change completely. Class actions are a common weapon and a major corporate concern.

While living in America, I received notices every few months.

A notice might say that under a district court’s order a class case had been filed against Walmart over misleading labels. Based on purchase records, card data, or membership history, I appeared to be a class member and could choose whether to participate.

Usually doing nothing means remaining in the class. Someone might opt out to sue Walmart separately.

A class member is bound by defeat and cannot sue again, but shares in recovery after victory—a windfall, though one compensating for a possible prior injury.

That sounds attractive, but who receives the largest slice? Medical-device injuries can produce serious individual harm and deserve separate discussion.