A class action is a type of lawsuit in which one or a few plaintiffs seek to represent hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs with the same or similar claims against the same defendants. Rules of procedure in state and federal courts permit class actions in limited circumstances for the purpose of resolving similar disputes more efficiently than if each plaintiff filed a separate lawsuit.

In Louisiana, class actions are governed by both state and federal law, depending on the jurisdiction of the case. Under Louisiana's Code of Civil Procedure, specifically Article 591 and following, a class action can be maintained if there is a definable class of persons with a common interest in the facts and law of the case, and the class is so numerous that individual joinder of all members is impracticable. The representative parties must fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class, and the legal or factual questions must predominate over any questions affecting only individual members. At the federal level, class actions that meet certain criteria can be brought under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This rule also requires that the class is so numerous as to make individual suits impractical, there are questions of law or fact common to the class, the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. Additionally, for a class action to proceed in federal court, the case might need to meet the requirements of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), which includes a diversity of citizenship among the parties and an amount in controversy exceeding $5 million.