Art. 593.Venue

Article 593 keeps class-action venue direct by tying it to Louisiana's ordinary venue rules rather than creating a special class-action forum. When a class sues on its own behalf, the case belongs in whatever parish would be proper venue for the defendant under the general venue articles. When a class is sued — for example, when a plaintiff seeks to hold an entire class of similarly situated obligors liable — the case belongs in whatever parish is proper venue for any one of the named class members who is a defendant.

This means venue for a class action does not turn on where the representative parties live, how large the class is, or where the underlying transaction occurred. It turns on the same proper-venue analysis that would apply if the suit had no class element at all, applied to whichever side the class occupies.