Chamber Challenges Largest Discrimination Class Action in History

Mega-Class Actions Force Defendants to Settle Meritless Claims, Chamber Argues

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today filed an amicus brief challenging the 2004 certification of the largest class action in history. In Dukes et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 1.5 million current and former employees are seeking billions of dollars in damages for alleged gender bias in pay and promotions.

"The court denied the defendant the opportunity to provide evidence that it acted lawfully," said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber's public policy law firm. "With no opportunity to mount a reasonable defense, the high stakes litigation forces employers either to settle a meritless lawsuit, or face financial ruin."

This is the Chamber's fifth challenge to the 2004 decision to allow the lawsuit to proceed as a class action. In 2004, the district judge said that the plaintiffs could prevail based solely on questionable statistical and anecdotal evidence. The district court also denied Wal-Mart any opportunity to provide individualized evidence that its conduct was lawful. A panel of federal appeals judges proposed an equally troublesome alternative trial process that would allow Wal-Mart to mount a defense only in a small number of 'test' cases chosen by a lottery.

"This 'lottery justice' tramples over defendants' fundamental right to present every available defense," said Conrad. "Since the case was certified in 2004, an overwhelming consensus has emerged that these mega-class actions are too big to manage, and are too likely to deny defendants their rights."

NCLC is the public policy law firm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that advocates fair treatment of business in the courts and before regulatory agencies.

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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