To the Editor:
Your June 21 editorial “Wal-Mart Wins. Workers Lose” should have been titled “Lawyers Lose. America Wins.”
The travesty that has allowed class action law firms to form a class effortlessly and commence a lawsuit has placed all of us at the mercy of large judgments, the primary beneficiary of which is often the law firm.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Wal-Mart case levels the playing field and requires law firms to invest meaningful capital to create an acceptable class and bring suit. I hope that it will discourage the often baseless legal claims and allow courts and lawyers to focus on bona fide issues.
Now if only we could get Congress to address the malpractice and other misused tort proceedings that are inflating our medical costs. That would be a great class action suit—all of us against the trial lawyers.
ALAN H. SCHECHTER
Fresh Meadows, Queens, June 21, 2011
To the Editor:
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has once again chipped away at longstanding legal precedent to ensure an individual’s right to seek redress against large organizations with vastly more resources, financial and otherwise.
This court’s shortsighted reasoning takes away yet one more stone from David in his battle against the corporate Goliaths that the court seems so intent on protecting the rights of, at the expense of the individual.
It is time for Congress to step into this fray and enact laws to counterbalance the skewed view that this current court holds with respect to the legal rights of the people.
LAWRENCE A. ABEL
San Diego, June 21, 2011
The writer is a lawyer.
To the Editor:
Wal-Mart has strict policies against sexual discrimination and disciplinary procedures for legitimate cases of discrimination. Promotion decisions are left to store managers’ discretion, and the assertion that all managers nationwide simultaneously violated corporate policy is absurd.
Of 1.5 million women whom Wal-Mart has employed since 1998, 120 sexual discrimination affidavits were filed as part of the lawsuit. That’s roughly 1 discrimination case for every 12,500 female employees, as Justice Antonin Scalia noted. That sample hardly represents a “class” of Wal-Mart’s women employees.
The facts speak for themselves. The Supreme Court made the right call.
MEGAN ROBERTS
Arlington, Va., June 22, 2011
To the Editor:
When much of the general culture sees women as less competent and committed workers, employers must assume that some supervisors likely share this view and take proactive steps to correct it. That’s the “common direction,” to use Justice Antonin Scalia’s term, that was needed and sorely lacking at Wal-Mart (and many other corporations).
Such direction includes giving guidance on personnel decisions and monitoring supervisory performance. If the percentage of women promoted, for example, falls far below the percentage employed, top managers should be asking why, analyzing how promotion and pay decisions were made, and rooting out whatever bias they uncover.
Few employers today are foolish enough to mandate discrimination. The problem is their failure to recognize and end it.
ELLEN BRAVO
Milwaukee, June 22, 2011
The writer is director of Family Values @ Work and former director of 9to5.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 