The Underdog
Friday, January 8, 2010 by Underdog Lawyer
Our firm likes representing the person who has no connections, who is working hard but gets cheated by the big corporations. One example of that we saw in a recent Post- Gazette article that discussed how Walmart and others are deducting too much sales tax from some purchases made with a coupon. It appears walmart calculates the tax based on the coupon price not the after coupon price. Thus the State gets paid too much. Of course its only a few pennies most of the time, and a Walmart spokesperson was almost cavalier in the response in the article, indicating they knew of this problem for some time but it was a computer issue (isn’t that a common excuse – blame it on the computer?)
From a lawyer standpoint if a client approaches attorneys with this issue, 99% won’t take it, as it doesn’t make economic sense. Even the “big” plaintiff’s firms probably wouldn’t be interested ( “We will get a few cents for you”).
That is what we like doing, going against the big corporation (Highmark, and Progressive are 2 examples) as we enjoy figuring out ways to get justice that makes economic sense. In the Walmart situation a class action for all of the people who have been cheated might be the answer . But it takes a lot of planning ( this isn’t some simple rear end collision from a legal standpoint) and experience handling them. So check your receipts out.
From a lawyer standpoint if a client approaches attorneys with this issue, 99% won’t take it, as it doesn’t make economic sense. Even the “big” plaintiff’s firms probably wouldn’t be interested ( “We will get a few cents for you”).
That is what we like doing, going against the big corporation (Highmark, and Progressive are 2 examples) as we enjoy figuring out ways to get justice that makes economic sense. In the Walmart situation a class action for all of the people who have been cheated might be the answer . But it takes a lot of planning ( this isn’t some simple rear end collision from a legal standpoint) and experience handling them. So check your receipts out.
