- Walmart has been ordered to pay $2.1 million in damages to a woman who was accused of shoplifting.
- The lawsuit stems from a 2016 incident where employees did not believe the woman paid for groceries.
- Walmart says the amount exceeds legal limits and will be appealing the decision.
A jury in Alabama has ordered Walmart to pay $2.1 million in damages to a woman who sued the company after she says she was wrongly accused of shoplifting and arrested.
The plaintiff Lesleigh Nurse says Walmart associates stopped her from leaving the store when they did not believe she had paid for her groceries at a self-checkout station.
Nurse was later arrested on charges of shoplifting, but the criminal case was dismissed a year later for "want of prosecution," the lawsuit said, according to AL.com.
She then says she began receiving letters from a law firm claiming to represent Walmart, which threatened to file a civil suit against her unless she paid a $200 settlement fee — more than the cost of the groceries in question.
Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove told Insider that the company believes its employees acted properly and that it considers the $2.1 million damages amount to exceed legal limits and will be filing an appeal.
In making its award, the jury found Walmart had abused a process known as civil recovery, but the same jury did not find Walmart or the law firm liable for the suit's allegations of false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, or slander.
"The defendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of falsely accusing innocent Alabama citizens of shoplifting and thereafter attempting to collect money from the innocently accused," the suit argued.
Civil recovery is legal in Alabama and other states, and is one way for retailers to recoup losses due to shoplifting. Still, Hargrove said Walmart discontinued its civil recovery program "several years ago."