Nielsen, Nelson, and Lancaster, Uncertain Justice
Organizational Processes
EDL is part of the workload of at least three distinct types of organizations. The first is the EEOC (and related state fair
employment practice agencies or FEPAs) through which most plaintiffs must first file a charge of discrimination before proceeding to
federal court. As the number of charges has increased dramatically over the last twenty years, and the size of full time staff has
declined, the EEOC faced a crisis in case backlogs (EEOC website per Ellen’s memo). The agency now assigns priority codes to
cases on intake and selectively investigates charges based on probability of success. Hirsch (forthcoming) reports that in 14% of
charges, the complainant receives some kind of favorable outcome. The EEOC becomes involved in litigation in fewer than 1% of
charges, but EEOC findings may affect the outcomes of other court cases.
A second organization worth thinking about are the federal courts which have been faced with mounting caseload pressures
from EDL, as the number of lawsuits almost tripled over a 7 year period. Employment civil rights are the most common type of case
on the federal civil docket which may be part of the reason that that federal courts have become increasingly hostile to these claims,
and why judges forcefully urge the parties to settle . Edelman (2005) suggests that the courts have become increasingly receptive to
defenses by employers that they have adopted policies and programs to safeguard against discrimination, such as mechanisms for
employees to report sexual harassment. Over time, we would expect employers to be more successful in withstanding lawsuits.
The third type of organization which may affect EDL are defendant employers. Employers confront EDL as a threat to their
organization, they face the cost of defending a lawsuit, the actual costs of a settlement or an award, damage to their reputation (which
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Convention