The Legal Process

Alea Bates

BUS/434

October 18, 2010
Robert Lewandowski

The Legal Process

An epidemic began hundreds of years ago, and unfortunately is still prevalent today. This epidemic is discrimination, and it is alive and well in all aspects of our lives. Discrimination comes in different forms and types. When most people think of discrimination, think of race discrimination; however, discrimination comes in many different forms such as age, gender, sexual, sex, religious, pregnancy, disability, and retaliation discrimination. Some form of discrimination happens every day, and not every employee has the proper information to file a claim against an employer or company after they feel they have been discriminated against. This paper will attempt to give resources and information about different types of discrimination and avenues available to John who wants to file suit against his employer due to some sort of discrimination. There are local, states, and federal laws hold employers responsible under the law for violating the law. Employers are not allowed to discriminate against an employee under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Discrimination goes outside of just current employees to the firing, promotion, and discipline of employees. John feels that he has been discriminated against. There are many different types of discrimination; the claim could be from a wide variety of areas. If John feels that he has been discriminated against, the first step he would take would be to file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The claimant in the private sector has 180 days to file a claim after the incident occurs. There are some exceptions based on the state laws where there alleged discrimination too place. Federal employees have 45 days to contact the Equal Employment Commission (EEC). The first step for John is to file a Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC. Claims can be filed online, in person, by phone, or by mail to make it easier for the claimant. At this stage claims will be checked for validity, and filtered out and contact with the claimant to see if there can be a resolution before a formal complaint is filed. After John’s claim has been found to be valid, the EEOC will have 10 days to notify the employer in writing about the charges, and the anti-retaliation laws that make it against the law to retaliate against the employee that has made the claim. Next is the offer of mediation is put on the table. Both parties have 10 days to respond to the mediation request. Each side must agree to mediation to or the case goes to the next step. If both sides do agree to mediation, the process will begin in approximately 45 days. If the mediation is not successful, a process of interviewing witnesses, the employee and employer. If there is still validity to the claim, the EEOC recommends that the parties try to resolve the claim outside of court. If no reasonable cause exists, the employee is advised of their right-to-sue. John will have 90 days to decide if he wants to take the charges to court to begin a judicial review. After the EEOC has completed its investigation, and the claim has been validated, if no mediation agreement has been made, the charges are turned over to the federal court. At this stage, the process starts over again, and the federal court asks that the involved parties try to resolve the matter with alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) such as arbitration mediation. ADR is encouraged at this stage again because it can cut down on court cost and avoids a public trial. If both sides again do not agree on a form of ADR, the court will set a trial date. The last decision both parties have to make is if they wish to have a trial by jury or have the verdict by a judge. Once the case has been heard either a judge or jury will decide the outcome of the case. If John does win his claim, as a part of the ruling, it will be decided what compensation he will be awarded, but this part depends on the type of discrimination claim that John filed to begin with. He could have filed gender, age, sex, sexual orientation, and disability or retaliation discrimination suit against his employer. If John does not win his case, the case would be dismissed because the jury or the judge felt that John did not meet his burden of proof to show discrimination. Because of the appeals process, either side has the right to appeal the federal court’s decision and appeal at the Supreme Court level. The decision made by the United States Supreme Court would be the final decision, and they could either uphold the lower court’s decision or overturn the decision.
Conclusion
Discrimination is not fair to anybody and should not exist in today’s society, but the fact of the matter is it does exist, so there have to be rules and laws to protect people who feel they have been discriminated against in some shape form or fashion. There a lot of channels for employees to go through, but the process is necessary to weed out false claims. At varying steps in the process both sides have the option to sit down and come to a resolution before the case goes to court. There are many advantages to mediation or arbitration such as avoiding a lengthy court process. There is no public trial, and there are no court cost or attorney fees that need to be paid either. The dispute is settled outside the public eye. The process may be tedious but it weeds out the false claims, but for those who have been discriminated against, it is good to know something can be done to help them.
References
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2010). . Retrieved October 17, 2010 from http://www.eeoc.gov/
United States Courts. (2010). . Retrieved October 17, 2010 from http://www.uscourts.gov/