The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday agreed to review whether more than a million current and former female employees who have worked at Walmart stores since 1998 are entitled to proceed with a massive class-action lawsuit charging sex discrimination by America’s largest retailer.
Yesterday’s decision does not mean the Supreme Court will actually decide the merits of the case, which has been winding its way through the courts since it was first filed by six women in 2001. It will only decide whether to handle the massive lawsuit as a class action.
If the Supreme Court allows a case of this magnitude to go through as a class action, the ruling could likely open the floodgates for future “jumbo” class actionsa development that could have major implications for corporate America, says Bob Gregg, a partner in Boardman Law Firm and a regular contributor to Fair360, formerly DiversityInc. In order to have a class, you have to have commonality, a strong thread of common fact and law that applies to the individual claims, he says.
