Walmart Applicants Get Background Check Class Action Lawsuit Certified

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Around 5 million Walmart job applicants have earned Class certification of their lawsuit claiming the company added extra material to background check notifications in violation of federal law.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled that the Walmart job applicants could pursue their litigation as a class action because the applicants experienced significant common claims and the issue would be better suited as a class action lawsuit than individual lawsuits.

Judge Carter stated that “whether [Walmart’s] form disclosures were lawful is a singular question that can be adjudicated based on the disclosures themselves rather than individualized inquiries as to each class member’s experience.”

The Walmart background check class action lawsuit was filed by Randy Pitre in 2017, and a request for class certification was made in October 2018.

Pitre and his representatives made a request that the judge allow them to add more plaintiffs to their Walmart class action lawsuit because Pitre is suffering from chronic pancreatitis and he is reportedly worried that his health problems might impair his ability to finish the background check class action lawsuit.

Judge Carter granted this request, adding plaintiff Cassandra Walters and Desirae Wilson as lead plaintiffs, because they allegedly were presented with a background check notification that violated laws.

According to Pitre and others, Walmart violates the Fair Credit and Reporting Act by including too much information in the background check disclosures given to applications.

Allegedly, employers who perform background checks on job applicants are required to notify them that they are going to perform a background check, but have to present the notification in a document that contains no additional information, so the document can be as clear as possible and not confusing to applicants.

Pitre claims that he and other Walmart job applicants received a background check notification from Walmart, but argue that the notification that they received included extra information, meaning the notification violated the Fair Credit and Reporting Act.

According to the Walmart background check class action lawsuit, the document Walmart sent to its applicants was a notification that also included information about state laws.

Allegedly, Walmart acknowledged during a deposition for the background check class action lawsuit that the forms it gave to applicants before Nov. 5, 2015 were indeed unclear and possibly confusing.

Based on this information, Pitre, Walters, and Wilson sought to have their Class Members split into two Classes — a Class of people who applied to Walmart before Nov. 5, 2015, and those who applied on or after Nov. 5, 2015.

According to the Walmart class action lawsuit, Walmart’s admission that the background check notifications sent out before Nov. 5, 2015 were confusing establishes that  “liability for that subclass is all but certain in this matter.”

Pitre, Walters, and Wilson go on to argue that the company did attempt to fix their disclosures in 2015, but failed to do so, and instead of making disclosures clearer, only ended up “created a sprawling, 12-page packet of material.”

The Walmart job applicants are represented by Shaun Setareh and by Thomas Segal of Setareh Law Group.

The Walmart Background Check Disclosure Class Action Lawsuit is Pitre v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., et al., Case No. 8:17-cv-01281, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.