Judicial economy refers to the overall efficiency in the operation of the judicial system or the efficiency of a given court. For instance, in the presence of a threshold issue that will ultimately decide a case, a court may elect to hear that issue rather than proceeding with a full-blown trial. Class action lawsuits are another example of judicial economy in action, as they are often tried as a single case, yet involve many cases with similar facts. Rather than trying each case individually, which would unduly burden the judicial system, the cases can be consolidated into a class action.