Wal-Mart Workers Denied Class Action

(Madison Wisconsin) The Wisconsin 1st District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit by Wal-Mart employees claiming they had to work through breaks without pay will not be given class-action status.

Since the only way to determine whether employees actually missed breaks is to examine each individual employee's time-clock entries, the court rightfully ruled that a jury should examine each of the estimated 86,000 claimants cases. The subject lawsuit, originally filed in 2001 by three Wal-Mart employees, will continue to be adjudicated. If they win, it's expected that they'll see no more than $100 judgments.

Right now, I imagine there are a few lawyers crying in their martinis.