Most class actions involve classes of plaintiffs, but keep a weather eye out for what the Fourth Circuit (cribbing from the Seventh) describes as the “unicorn” class action—the class is getting sued, not doing the suing! Sadly, though, this sort of unicorn is a unicorn even amongst unicorns: Unlike the standard unicorn—”majestic and even magical,” in the Fourth Circuit’s experience—defendant class action unicorns can suffer from hideous deformities relating to due process and to inadequate representation of absent class members.
