Legal Process Paper

Legal Process Paper

While discrimination in the workplace has become more difficult to identify, Americans can rely on several federal laws that prohibits job discrimination. In the hiring and terminating process, employers need to be fully aware of the correct legal course of action to avoid discrimination practices. John is an employee in a private sector organization that has strong resistance to enforcement of existing discrimination laws. He wants to file a discrimination complaint against his employer. Based on this scenario, the entire discrimination complaint and civil litigation process will be discussed as it applies to an employee and employer in a private sector organization.

To discriminate is to make a distinction between people based upon their race, weight, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. Some of the worst employment discrimination acts were eliminated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primary reason for the enactment of the 1964 was because of discrimination against African Americans. Because of other types of discriminating cases, the federal government introduced the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Civil Right Acts of 1991. When an employee feels he or she has been discriminated against according to these laws, a discrimination complaint must be filed and it proceeds through the civil litigation process from the state level up to the United States Supreme Court.

Filing a Complaint

Litigation can be described as the process of pursuing a lawsuit. The stages of the litigation process may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. According to the United States (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), any individual who believes that his or her employment rights have been violated may file a charge of discrimination with EEOC (2006). A charge may be filed by mail or in person at the complaining party's local EEOC office. The person filing the complaint must provide his or her information along with the respondent employer, employment agency, or union alleged to have discriminating. Supporting information should include the complaining party and respondents name, address, telephone number, description of the violation, and dates of alleged violation. The date of the alleged violation is important to the EEOC because the charged must be filed with EEOC within 180 days from the date of the alleged violation.

Charge Process Procedures

Once the charge is filed, the employer is notified. At this point, a charge may be assigned a priority or follow