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Supreme Court limits Wal-Mart sex bias case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/20 15:06
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The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there.
The court ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages.
Now, the handful of women who brought the lawsuit may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle.
The justices divided 5-4 on another aspect of the ruling that could make it much harder to mount similar class-action discrimination lawsuits against large employers.
Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion for the court's conservative majority said there needs to be common elements tying together "literally millions of employment decisions at once."
But Scalia said that in the lawsuit against the nation's largest private employer, "That is entirely absent here."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court's four liberal justices, said there was more than enough uniting the claims. "Wal-Mart's delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores," Ginsburg said. |
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Woman pleads guilty in border cash smuggling case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/19 16:55
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A woman has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle more than $930,000 in cash across the Arizona border and into her native Mexico.
Federal prosecutors say 25-year-old Judith Angelica Ayala-Partida pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tucson to bulk cash smuggling.
She's scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4.
Authorities say Ayala-Partida was driving a vehicle that was stopped last Nov. 16 at the port of entry in Nogales, Ariz.
She told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that she didn't have more than $10,000 to declare. But a currency-detecting dog alerted authorities to the driver's side quarter panel of the car and a search led to the discovery of 101 packages containing $937,188.
Ayala-Partida's hometown in Mexico wasn't immediately available Friday. |
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Ohio court investigating lawyer who tipped Tressel
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/15 16:01
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The attorney whose email tip to Jim Tressel launched a scandal that led to his forced resignation as Ohio State's football coach and possible NCAA discipline for the school is being investigated for legal misconduct by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Sanctions against lawyer Christopher Cicero could range from a public reprimand to permanently losing his law license.
State Disciplinary Counsel Jonathan Coughlan alleged in a filing Monday that Cicero violated professional conduct rules by revealing information from interviews with a potential client.
Cicero, a former Ohio State football player in the early 1980s, met with Columbus tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife on April 2, 2010 and again on April 15, 2010 to discuss whether Cicero would represent him in a federal drug trafficking case, according to the filing.
During an April 1, 2010 raid on Rife's business, federal agents seized several pieces of Ohio State football memorabilia, including gold pendants, autographed photos and championship rings, the filing said.
During an April 2 meeting with Cicero, Rife explained his involvement in criminal activity and also explained how he acquired the Ohio State memorabilia, the filing said. |
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2 ex-judges, lawyer back to prison in Miss scheme
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/14 02:06
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Two ex-judges and an attorney from Mississippi must return to federal prison for their convictions in a loan scheme.
A federal appeals court had vacated their bribery convictions but upheld the guilty verdicts on corruption charges. So they needed to be resentenced.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate denied requests by Paul Minor and former Harrison County judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield to be re-sentenced to time they have already served.
Wingate on Monday sentenced Minor to eight years, Teel to four and Whitfield about six — all less than previous.
Prosecutors said Minor would guarantee loans for the judges, then used cash and third parties to pay off the debts. Judges then ruled in his favor in civil cases. He has long said he is innocent and was making loans to help friends. |
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High court upholds Nevada ethics law
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/13 17:27
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The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld a Nevada ethics law that governs when lawmakers should refrain from voting on official business because they might have a conflict of interest. The court reversed a Nevada Supreme Court decision that said elected officials have a constitutional right to vote on official business that the state law violated. The decision came in the case of Michael Carrigan, a Sparks, Nev., council member who voted on a casino project even though his campaign manager served as a project consultant. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said an elected official's vote "is not his own speech but a mechanical function of government — the commitment of his apportioned share of the legislature's power to the passage or defeat of a particular proposal." Scalia said conflict-of-interest rules similar to Nevada's "have been commonplace for over 200 years." The Nevada Commission on Ethics found that Carrigan's vote violated a provision of the ethics law that lays out various relationships that should disqualify an official from voting, including the official's relatives and business associates. The ethics panel said Carrigan should have abstained from voting because his friend and campaign manager, Carlos Vasquez, also worked as a consultant for the Red Hawk Land Co., which was backing the Lazy 8 casino project. |
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Pa. appeals court upholds $188M Wal-Mart verdict
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/11 16:36
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A $188 million class-action verdict against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sam's Club over payment to employees for rest breaks and off-the-clock work was upheld Friday by a Pennsylvania appeals court.
A three-judge Superior Court panel said there was sufficient evidence at trial to conclude there had been a breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violations of state labor laws.
The judges also ruled in a 211-page opinion that the presiding Philadelphia judge erred in determining some of the plaintiffs' legal fees, and sent that part of the case back for recalculation.
The 2006 trial, which lasted 32 days, resulted in a finding that Wal-Mart did not pay employees for all the work they performed and did not let them take their paid, mandatory rest breaks, the judges wrote. The court awarded $46 million in attorneys' fees.
Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter said the retail giant believes the court decision was wrong in a number of respects and looks forward to additional review in the courts. |
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