Suing Wal-Mart Cost Lead Law Firm $7M
Expecting a big payoff, the lead plaintiffs law firm in a massive class action against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. invested about $5 million in attorney and staff time and $2 million in costs, much of it for discovery, to pursue the case.
But after this week’s U.S. Supreme Court victory for the defense, “all our fees and expenses are at risk,” Joseph Sellers of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll tells Reuters.
The firm has a line of credit that it can draw upon to continue to fund the case, Sellers says, and Cohen Milstein’s other employment discrimination litigation “contributes to the profitability of the firm.”
As detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, the nation’s top court nixed a single class action against the world’s biggest retailer because the claims made by the plaintiff workers didn’t have enough questions of law and fact in common. However, as the firm notes in a written statement, the decision didn’t address the merits of the case or preclude individual plaintiffs from proceeding.
The arguments and prior history of the case are discussed in another ABAJournal.com post. If given the green light, the class action reportedly would have been the largest of its kind ever to proceed.
Updated at 2:26 p.m. to link to firm’s written statement re effect of Supreme Court ruling.
