Employment Discrimination Lawsuits

Some Tips to Prevent Employment Discrimination Lawsuits teaches employers a faith-based (Judeo-Christian) strategy to help increase productivity and reduce litigation. Filled with excellent, innovative practical tips, the book teaches employers how to prevent race discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, genetics discrimination, and sexual harassment in the workplace; how to reduce the number of, and dollar amount of, discrimination lawsuits brought by employees against employers; and how to reduce legal expenses in these lawsuits. In addition to legal tips and practical tips, Robinson includes some biblical passages he thinks can, if employers keep them in mind, help employers achieve these goals. Robinson addresses many difficult questions: Should employers be race-conscious and gender-conscious when hiring and managing employees, or race-blind and gender-blind? Should employers be more lenient with aging and disabled employees than with other employees, or treat everyone the same? Do laws that protect gays from discrimination in the workplace conflict with, or comply with, biblical teachings? And many other important questions on the minds of managers today.

The most important color in the workplace is not black or white, but green. A company's employment decisions should be based on the bottom line, not on an employee's skin color, gender, age, ethnicity, or other discriminatory category. Businesses shouldn't care if an employee is black, white, brown, red, or some other color; they should care how well they perform their job. In Workplace Discrimination Prevention Manual, author and attorney David A. Robinson teaches employers how to prevent some of the more common types of illegal discrimination in the workplace and how to prevent or reduce the impact or likelihood of a discrimination lawsuit. He helps employers learn how to run a productive, efficient, profitable business without violating the discrimination laws. Robinson answers some of the most perplexing questions in human resource management today: - Should employers think about the race and skin color of their employees, or should employers be race-blind and color-blind? - Should supervisors be more lenient with aging and disabled employees than with other employees, or should they treat everyone the same? - Should employers treat men and women differently, or the same? Filled with innovative, practical tips, Workplace Discrimination Prevention Manual provides an easy-to-understand overview of employment discrimination law and discusses the specifics of race, ethnicity, age, religion, disability, and sexual orientation discrimination. This guidebook presents a valuable resource for executives, managers, lawyers, business students, and law students.

Gerry Handley faced years of blatant race-based harassment before he filed a complaint against his employer: racist jokes, signs reading “KKK” in his work area, and even questions from coworkers as to whether he had sex with his daughter as slaves supposedly did. He had an unusually strong case, with copious documentation and coworkers’ support, and he settled for $50,000, even winning back his job. But victory came at a high cost. Legal fees cut into Mr. Handley’s winnings, and tensions surrounding the lawsuit poisoned the workplace. A year later, he lost his job due to downsizing by his company. Mr. Handley exemplifies the burden plaintiffs bear in contemporary civil rights litigation. In the decades since the civil rights movement, we’ve made progress, but not nearly as much as it might seem. On the surface, America’s commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace has never been clearer. Virtually every company has antidiscrimination policies in place, and there are laws designed to protect these rights across a range of marginalized groups. But, as Ellen Berrey, Robert L. Nelson, and Laura Beth Nielsen compellingly show, this progressive vision of the law falls far short in practice. When aggrieved individuals turn to the law, the adversarial character of litigation imposes considerable personal and financial costs that make plaintiffs feel like they’ve lost regardless of the outcome of the case. Employer defendants also are dissatisfied with the system, often feeling “held up” by what they see as frivolous cases. And even when the case is resolved in the plaintiff’s favor, the conditions that gave rise to the lawsuit rarely change. In fact, the contemporary approach to workplace discrimination law perversely comes to reinforce the very hierarchies that antidiscrimination laws were created to redress. Based on rich interviews with plaintiffs, attorneys, and representatives of defendants and an original national dataset on case outcomes, Rights on Trial reveals the fundamental flaws of workplace discrimination law and offers practical recommendations for how we might better respond to persistent patterns of discrimination.

Employment Discrimination Lawsuits is an authoritative, insiders perspective on key strategies for representing employers facing discrimination lawsuits. Featuring partners from some of the nations leading law firms, these experts guide the reader through the different phases of an employment discrimination case and the key strategic considerations for each phase. These top lawyers reveal their advice for working with clients, including understanding individual motivations and overcoming emotional and psychological hurdles to achieve a successful attorney-client relationship. From obtaining key documentation and implementing discovery best practices to working with outside experts and understanding jurisdictional considerations, these authors explain the key elements of a case as well as discuss options for early resolution, including mediation and settlement negotiations. Additionally, these leaders reveal strategies for companies on how to prevent lawsuits and minimize exposure through the development of policies and procedures, continued implementation of those procedures, and thorough internal investigations of any potential claims. The different niches represented and the breadth of perspectives presented enable readers to get inside some of the great legal minds of today, as these experienced lawyers offer up their thoughts around the keys to success within this challenging and ever-evolving area of law.