I've got a close family member that handles large class action cases, resulting mainly from defective construction materials. Their firm was recently in the news for receiving a "landmark" 50 million dollar judgement in a case. Almost immediately, the greedy lawyer comments and articles came out, and people blame the law firm(s) for shutting down corporations and costing people jobs. Several things that people don't realize - some of which you touched on.

1) The lengths of these cases. Most of them go on for many years, with these companies filing every motion they can come up with to stall the case. In the one particular case, the suit was filed in 2010 and just reached a decision. That's 5 years of attorneys and paralegals busting their asses, 100 hours a week, fighting off this other company's legal team.

2) These cases are always appealed, and in a lot of times, settlements are reached that are far lower than what the original judgement was.

3) In the grand scheme of things, these judgements/settlements mean almost nothing to these corporations. 50 million dollars seems like a lot to you and I, but it's not really to a company netting 10x that annually. And these settlements are written off as a loss in their books, decreasing their tax liabilities.

4) Most of the time, these huge corporations are stiffing people because they can - it's no accident that big tobacco targets teenagers in their ads, or that defective Chinese drywall ends up in our markets. It's financially advantageous for companies to push these products on people. You're right in thinking that most consumers won't pursue litigation - and these companies know that. It takes a class action suit to bring some of these parties responsible.

I can't remark to the specifics of the case I touched on above, but the company has admitted wrongdoing - they thought they could get away with it. The law firm that fought it has spent 5 years collecting absolutely nothing while this thing pushes through the courts. Add to it the millions of dollars in hiring laboratories and experts to examine materials and then testify on the firm's behalf - this one firm I know is in well over 1 million dollars - honestly, probably closer to 5 million.

So let's say they're awarded a 50 million dollar settlement. It then gets appealed and 18 months from now, the law firm accepts a 30 million dollar settlement. It's taken them 7 years and 5+ million dollars to see this case out. Out of the 30 million, they get 10 million and the clients get 20 million. That 10 million dollars basically recoups the wages spent on fighting this case, plus a little bit to put in the bank for the next one of these things.

It's a rare case when you find law firms celebrating winning a large judgement - after it's all said and done, the money just doesn't seem to be worth it.