Commonality Law and Legal Definition
Commonality is a feature of a group of people seeking to be certified for a class action, that there are questions of law and fact common to the prospective class. Commonality is a necessity for some jurisdictions for certification of a proposed class action by a proposed group. In the U.S., for example, the procedural rule for certification includes the requirement that "there are questions of law and fact common to the class." Commonality focuses on the relationship of common facts and legal issues among class members. It is not essential that all questions of fact and law need to be common to satisfy the rule of commonality. The existence of shared legal issues with divergent factual predicates is sufficient.
