Have you ever filed a SUCCESSFUL discrimination complaint with EEOC or a local civil rights agency?

Expert Realtor

They are...and Y!A is a good example of why.

Most people don't know what true discrimination is and what it takes to prove it.

They think that just because they are a minority and get turned down for a promotion, or get disciplined at work, or don't get a job, that they have a "race" claim, and that isn't true.

You are required to file a complaint with the EEOC first before you sue in court...b/c a federal judge will ask you if you have exhausted your efforts there first. The EEOC also caters to the business, not to the person filing the complaint. They will hold the complaintant to deadlines and allow for a company to miss theirs over and over again, and there isn't anything you can do about it, b/c they run the show.

If the EEOC finds that there is NO discrimination you have 90 days from that decision to file a suit in open court....that is, IF you can find an attorney...people just think you can just pick up a phone and get an attorney to represent you....not that easy...they only want to fool with cases that they can win, and you must have a clear-cut case before they will take one pro-bono, otherwise you need the cash to fork out $250 an hour for one.

People that have never ACTUALLY went through the process, have no idea of how frustrating it is. I had a close friend that did, a senior investigator with the EEOC told her she had one of the most clear-cut cases of pregnancy discrimination that she had ever seen....but people don't know, is that the MANAGEMENT of the local office can OVERRULE the recommendation of the investigator....in my friend's case, the company submitted information at the last minute, my friend was NOT given an opportunity to respond to it, and that very day the management mysteriously had a meeting and rendered a decision....which was not in her favor.

She could not sue, because an attorney advised her she could be blackballed from her industry if she did....which had already started and made it difficult for her to find another job.

THAT is the reality of it.

Mel

I have been on the other end of those claims, having to defend them....the burden of proof is always on the employer to prove that they did not discriminate. Larger employers with more resources and access to legal counsel can generaly defend themselves because:

-the larger the employee population, the more easily one case becomes an insignificant data point in a large pool of information.
-competent employment law attorneys know how to slice and dice the info so that it presents the picture they want to show.

In terms of what makes a case successful for the claimant, I'd say there are several things:

-Documentation. If the claimant can produce emails, performance reviews, desciplinary actions, or any other materials which clearly demonstrate that they were given disparate treatment based on a protected attribute (age, gender, race, etc.), it's tough for the employer to defend.
-Class actions. As indicated above, one claimant is a small data point...lots of claimants is a class action suit. There is a tendency to pay more attention to a crowd.
-Clear-cut violations of the company's own policies or current labor law. If the claimant can demonstrate that the company was paying minimum wage to all females while starting all males at $12./hour, for example, that would be a clear violation of the company's stated commitment to affirmative action.

Too many claimants damage their own credibility by failing to appear for scheduled hearings, failing to produce documentation or even credible witnesses, and as indicated by another poster, failing to understand what constitutes the legal definition of discrimination. When you deal with the EEOC you are dealing with a large government bureaucracy - making their job easier will make them more inclined to pursue your claim.

SpEdProfessional

Agreed. People do regularly think that they have been the object of discrimination, but they are wrong. It is common to confuse being fired because you are bad at your job with being fired because of one's skin color. It amazes me at times.

CatLaw

Depends on how you define "SUCCESSFUL". I have filed many discimination complaints with EEOC and Illinois Dept of Human Rights that were resolved by a FAIR settlement between the employee (my client) and the employer. To the employee it was a success.

If you are asking how many EEOC discrimination complaints have ever gone to a full blown federal trial where the EEOC pays for the litigation and the employee wins millions - zero. The EEOC only takes .01% of all the complaints filed to a federal court. The EEOC does, in every case, provide a "right to sue letter" which allows the employee to sue in federal court, on their on money (avg $5-15k).

IMHO and with about 14 years of experience in employment law, the reason that discrimination complaints are tossed out is:
1. The employee has been treated unfairly, not discriminated against. BIG DIFFERENCE. Discrimination is being treated worse than other employees on certain discrimination bases that are set by federal and state law. See www.eeoc.gov and your states human rights dept /group /agency/ commission. Discrimination is proved by pointing to workers in same or similar jobs of a different discrimination base that were treated better. For example being mistreated or fired due to being over weight is not a basis for discrimination YET people still file complaints on that basis. The complaints are tossed out without any investigation.

2. Everyone wants it for FREE. Common phone conversation in my office "I have a terrific discrimination case and I want to you to work on it for Free". I want my electric and my gas for free too. Employment cases are what are called front end heavy -- that is the attorney will put 20 to 40 hours in a case working it up in legally BEFORE it can be filed with the EEOC. The same employees who will sue an employer for being shorted on OT, think nothing of wanting to short their attorney for a week of solid work. You get what you pay for.

3. 'I watch law shows on tv so I am qualified to be my own attorney". Many employees with good cases, that could get some type of a financial settlement, will screw up the case by doing it themselves. By the time they actually call a lawyer the case has been through the steps that would have cost the client less money, and sometimes are so old that the case is no longer able to be filed. It is so sad to see good cases lost because an amatuer missed filing deadlines or missed putting something in the complaint filed with the EEOC.

4. Unrealistically high expectations of what a case is worth. Everybody thinks they have the 'million dollar cofffee' case -- even that case was settled for much much less than a million. In employment cases there are only rare instances that will warrent a huge award and those awards are ONLY made in a very expensive federal court. And if a person has that .01% terrific case, the EEOC will take it on.

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