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Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP
The
number of civil rights-based employment cases filed in federal
court against private companies more than tripled from 6,936
in 1990 to 21,540 in 1998, according to a study released
by the U.S. Department of Justice. The study did not include
cases resolved by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
in the administrative phase or cases brought in state court,
so the number of civil rights-based cases filed during this
period actually is even higher than reported in the study.
About
one-third of the employment cases filed in federal court
made it to trial in 1998, and plaintiffs won 50 percent
more often than in 1990. In 1998, plaintiffs won 35.5 percent
of the cases brought to trial while in 1990 plaintiffs won
23.8 percent of the cases.
Winners and Awards in Civil Rights Cases Terminated by
Trial Verdict in U.S. District Courts 1990-1998
| Year |
Civil
Rights Cases Terminated by Trial |
Number
of Plaintiff Victories |
Percent
of Plaintiff Victories |
Number
of Money Awards |
Median
Award in 1,000s |
Award
of Less than $500,000 by % |
Award
of $1 million or more by % |
Award
of $10 million or more by 1% |
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
|
725
711
949
803
916
1016
1106
1167
1083
|
170
188
266
206
283
269
361
401
384
|
23.8
26.4
28.0
25.7
30.9
26.5
32.6
34.4
35.5
|
143
155
216
169
250
229
299
325
302
|
$450
$188
$117
$ 62
$ 90
$116
$125
$125
$137
|
50.3
60.0
68.5
85.8
87.6
80.8
78.6
78.8
77.8
|
42.7
39.4
24.5
8.3
7.6
13.5
14.7
13.5
14.2
|
1.4
1.3
4.2
2.4
3.6
8.7
8.4
10.2
10.6
|
Source:
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Civil Master File,
annual, taken from Bureau of Justice Statistics Civil Rights
Complaints Report, 1990-1998.
For cases taken to trial, the proportion of jury verdicts
increased from 35% in 1990 to 78% in 1998. This increase
is significant because plaintiffs generally are more successful
in jury trials than in bench trials decided by a judge.
Plaintiffs win about a third of jury trials annually compared
to only a quarter of bench trials. Juries also tend to award
larger damages than judges -- nearly twice the amount awarded
in bench trials.
The
median damage award in the cases decided by a jury was $137,000.
However, in many instances it was substantially more. In
14.2 percent of the cases, the jury award was more than
$1 million and in 10.6 percent of the cases the jury awards
was more than $10 million. Although many of these cases
involved multiple plaintiffs or class actions, some were
sexual harassment cases brought by an individual plaintiff.
Potential
liability to employers actually is much higher than even
these figures suggest because they do not include non-civil
rights based employment claims such as breach of contract,
intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation
and other employment-related torts. Nor do these figures
include claims filed with administrative agencies and state
courts or those that were resolved through arbitration,
mediation or other methods.
The
dramatic increase in civil rights-based employment claims
since 1990 partly is attributable to the enactment of several
new civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disability
Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
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©2000 Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP
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