What is the Process for Proving Unlawful Employment Discrimination?

If you have experienced unlawful employment discrimination as a job applicant or in your current place of employment, it is important to understand the process you will need to go through in order to win your claim. Most types of employment discrimination claims will not begin with a lawsuit but instead will begin with the filing of a complaint or charge of discrimination with the appropriate state or federal agency. Then, depending on the evidence you have and that your attorney helps you to gather, you will take steps to prove discrimination. Our South Florida employment discrimination attorneys can tell you more, and we can discuss the specific details of your employment discrimination case with you today.

Filing a Complaint or Charge of Discrimination 

For most types of employment discrimination, the first official step in the process of proving discrimination and winning your case is to file a complaint or charge of discrimination with the appropriate agency. To be clear, in most kinds of discrimination cases, filing a lawsuit is not the first official step.

If you are bringing your case under the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA), a state law, then you will file your initial complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. For most cases being brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or other federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, you will file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Once a claim goes through this process, then you will need to prove employment discrimination in court if you decide to move forward with a lawsuit.

Meeting the Burden of Proof 

When you bring a discrimination case, the burden of proof will be on you to establish that you have a valid discrimination claim under state or federal law. With your employer’s help, you can gather a range of evidence that may include emails and other forms of electronic communication, job advertisements, workplace reports, and related materials. After you meet the initial burden, then your employer will have a chance to show that there was a valid and nondiscriminatory explanation or reason for the employment action taken. If the employer shows that there may be a nondiscriminatory explanation, then the burden will again shift back to you (and to your lawyer) to show that, despite the existence of a nondiscriminatory explanation, the employer did in fact violate state or federal law.

Relative recent case law in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes the state of Florida, also suggests that employees may be able to rely on various forms of circumstantial evidence that may allow a court to infer that the employer engaged in unlawful discrimination. Types of evidence may include the timing of an employer’s decision to do a layoff or hiring (or similar), and certain types of ambiguous language used by the employer.

Contact a Palm Beach Gardens Employment Discrimination Attorneys 

Any job applicant or employee in South Florida who has experienced any form of unlawful employment discrimination should seek legal advice about options under state and federal law. One of the experienced Palm Beach Gardens employment discrimination lawyers at Sconzo Law Office is here to answer any questions you have and to discuss the details of your claim with you. Contact Sconzo Law Office today for assistance with your employment discrimination case.

Sources:

fchr.myflorida.com/file-a-complaint-page

eeoc.gov/how-file-charge-employment-discrimination

law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/22-11129/22-11129-2023-10-27.html

law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/21-13245/21-13245-2023-12-12.html