Class Action Suit

The Supreme Court has agreed ? ominously ? to consider derailing a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the giant retailer Wal-Mart. If the justices rule that the class-action suit can't go forward, Wal-Mart employees may not be the only ones to be denied a meaningful day in court. The allegations against Wal-Mart, which haven't yet been put to a trial, are that women are paid less than men for comparable jobs and that women receive fewer promotions. But those issues aren't before the Supreme Court.

A week before Christmas, Judy Powelson was awaiting her son's first visit home in nine months with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Earlier in the year, the 17-year-old's mental illness had spiraled out of control to the point that he attacked her, kicked a teacher in the groin and was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment. But since he entered residential treatment funded in part by the state, she'd seen him go through marked improvements ? getting a 3.11 GPA and being voted MVP in soccer.

The fate of the largest job bias lawsuit in the nation's history ? a claim that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shortchanged women in pay and promotions for many years ? hinges on whether the Supreme Court will let the class-action case go to trial. The court is likely to announce as soon as Monday whether it will hear the retail giant's appeal asserting that a single lawsuit cannot speak for more than 1.5 million employees. Business lawyers and civil rights advocates are closely following the Wal-Mart case for its implications for class-action litigation.

A federal judge has certified two separate class-action lawsuits against grocery chains Ralphs and Albertsons ? advancing a legal fight between the retailers and 9,000 workers who claim they were illegally denied millions of dollars in benefits during the 2003-04 grocery lockout and strike. FOR THE RECORD: Grocery lawsuit: An article in the Oct. 23 Business section about two separate class-action lawsuits being certified against grocery chains Ralphs and Albertsons said a federal judge had certified the cases.

Several civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to halt a controversial new Arizona law that requires local police to enforce federal immigration regulations. The lawsuit is at least the fourth filed since Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last month signed the law, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration paperwork in Arizona and requires police to determine the status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants. The federal class-action claim contends that the law will lead to widespread racial profiling, infringes on the federal government's ability to set immigration policy and violates the Constitution's 1st and 4th amendments.

A retired Los Angeles County judge who ordered that a lawyer be paid in $10 gift cards from a women's fashion store as part of a legal settlement was censured Tuesday and barred from presiding over court cases. The Commission on Judicial Performance accused Brett C. Klein of showing bias, abusing his authority and "grandstanding to the press" in a class-action lawsuit that he briefly presided over last year. The lawsuit accused a clothing store chain of violating privacy laws by asking for personal identification information when customers used credit cards to make purchases.

The online dating site EHarmony.com has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by gays and lesbians who said the service discriminated against them. As part of the proposed agreement, the company will pay more than half a million dollars and make its website more "welcoming" to seekers of same-sex matches, according to court documents filed Tuesday. The Pasadena-based company had already launched a service last year for gays and lesbians, called Compatible Partners, as part of an unrelated settlement with the New Jersey attorney general's civil rights division.

Employers vs. labor? Airlines vs. passengers? Investors vs. companies? When it comes to business lawsuits, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor can be hard to pigeonhole. Although Sotomayor's opponents paint her as an activist with a liberal bent, many legal experts say her record is far from that of an ideologue on business issues. In 1995, as a U.S. district judge, she favored the Major League Baseball players against the owners.

Consumer class-action lawsuits in California, which have encountered mounting skepticism from courts, face a major test in a tobacco case to be decided Monday by the state Supreme Court. The court will determine whether smokers who say they purchased cigarettes in response to deceptive ads can collectively sue the industry for the money they spent to smoke.