U.S judge does not allow for the gender discrimination case against Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) to be dismissed

On Friday, District Judge, Charles Breyer declared that the gender discrimination case against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(NYSE:WMT) was to proceed, much against the company’s wishes. The ruling was made at a Federal Court in San Francisco, and Judge Breyer is of the opinion that the plaintiffs should be given time to make their case, and that they have enough evidence to support them as a class.

The plaintiffs, who are women, had filed a court case against Wal-Mart which said that they were not given adequate promotions or raises on account of their gender. However, the Wal-Mart attorney Theodore Boutrous Jrs said that the Wal-Mart Inc had always been against discrimination, and that the women had unreasonable claims.

The plaintiffs regrouped after the U.S court ruled against them last year, thereby dismantling the class of about one million workers. But the attorney for the plaintiffs, Brad Seligman, said that the workers were to regroup and seeks legal vindication yet again, although this time the allegations have been confined to the state of California. There had been a similar case filed against the company in Texas, not so long ago.

The Wal-Mart workers have regrouped and have reformulated their lawsuit, and this time, the case seems to be tilting in their favor, ever so slightly.  The new case has almost a hundred thousand existing and previous Wal-Mart workers as potentials for class members.

Wal-Mart argued before Judge Breyer’s ruling, that due to the long-drawn time-period of the case which had been going on for quite a while, with ten years worth of litigation, the reformulated case should be dismissed and this should not go on any further.

However, according to Seligman, apart from California and Texas, considering the subtle but steady practice of discrimination which the chain of stores followed, many more cases will soon be filed against them in the near future.

The plaintiffs are far more hopeful of how the reformulated court case will turn out to be. Seligman is far more positive about the ruling of the Supreme Court.