Wellington Comments on Wal-Mart Class Action

On February 28, 2007, Ralph Wellington was featured in The Legal Intelligencer article “No Fee Simple.”

The Philadelphia Common Pleas court held a hearing featuring testimonies from two expert witnesses for Hummel v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to debate the plaintiffs’ request for counsel fees totaling more than $46 million. In October 2006, a city jury awarded nearly $78.5 million to approximately 186,000 current and former employees at Pennsylvania Wal-Mart stores who claimed they weren’t properly paid for missed rest breaks and off-the-clock work. Altogether, class counsel is seeking an additional $62 million on top of the jury’s award. They are also asking for roughly $12 million in pre-judgment interest.

Ralph served as Wal-Mart’s expert on the reasonableness of class counsel’s rates and stated that his conclusions were based on personal experience in recent cases and on reviews of reports on average Philadelphia hourly legal rates by industry research groups.