This new addition to the Model Jury Instructions series provides clear and balanced instructions for presentation to juries in employment litigation. These models accurately and impartially present the elements and critical definitions of patent law in language that is understandable and familiar to the average juror. The instructions allow for easy adaptation to particular cases or points. A CD-ROM of the jury instructions is included with the book.
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.
Statistical analysis can play a pivotal role in both avoiding and settling employment disputes. Employers and litigants in employment lawsuits routinely use statistics to investigate the legitimacy of employment decisions. "Statistical Analysis of Employment Data" provides managers and courts with empirical evidence that goes beyond anecdotes and stories. This textbook presents the methodologies that are used in statistical employment data analyses. While the focus is on statistics, it is not a cookbook of magic mathematical formulas. Instead, a non-mathematical approach is used to develop the conceptual framework underlying employment data analyses.
It is no secret that since the 1980s, American workers have lost power vis-à-vis employers through the well-chronicled steep decline in private sector unionization. American workers have also lost power in other ways. Those alleging employment discrimination have fared increasingly poorly in the courts. In recent years, judges have dismissed scores of cases in which workers presented evidence that supervisors referred to them using racial or gender slurs. In one federal district court, judges dismissed more than 80 percent of the race discrimination cases filed over a year. And when juries return verdicts in favor of employees, judges often second guess those verdicts, finding ways to nullify the jury's verdict and rule in favor of the employer. Most Americans assume that that an employee alleging workplace discrimination faces the same legal system as other litigants. After all, we do not usually think that legal rules vary depending upon the type of claim brought. The employment law scholars Sandra A. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas show in Unequal that our assumptions are wrong. Over the course of the last half century, employment discrimination claims have come to operate in a fundamentally different legal system than other claims. It is in many respects a parallel universe, one in which the legal system systematically favors employers over employees. A host of procedural, evidentiary, and substantive mechanisms serve as barriers for employees, making it extremely difficult for them to access the courts. Moreover, these mechanisms make it fairly easy for judges to dismiss a case prior to trial. Americans are unaware of how the system operates partly because they think that race and gender discrimination are in the process of fading away. But such discrimination still happens in the workplace, and workers now have little recourse to fight it legally. By tracing the modern history of employment discrimination, Sperino and Thomas provide an authoritative account of how our legal system evolved into an institution that is inherently biased against workers making rights claims.
Reflecting the dominate theme of workplace equality, the authors go beyond this general consensus to affirm that the fundamental purpose of laws prohibiting employment discrimination is to implement the national civil rights policy. Organized around an examination of the reach and limits of laws, the book scrutinizes the federal statutory protection against employment discrimination. Constitutional provisions and state laws are included where appropriate. In addition, this new edition extensively uses scholarship drawn from the work of critical race theorists and feminist legal scholars. It also has materials on the law and economics approach to employment discrimination.
Considers the practical realities of applying the law on a day-to-day basis and answers all the common questions, covering: what harrassment is and how to stop it, when and how discrimination occurs, how to conduct training, how to handle employee complaints, and much more. Original.
Like all the other volumes in the Stories collection, this book provides students with a three dimensional picture of the most important cases that are addressed in nearly every employment discrimination casebook and course. These stories give the students and faculty members a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural background of the cases and an insight into their long term impact on the development of employment discrimination law.
The 2015 edition of Employment Law Yearbook covers the most important issues facing today's employers and employment law practitioners. In this tight employment market and amid the rapidly changing global economy, it is imperative that employers and employment law practitioners understand the legal implications of a wide range of workplace actions. Authored by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's Employment Law Practice Group, a nationally recognized leader in this field, Employment Law Yearbook 2015 substantially revises the 2014 edition and provides a review of current developments in the law, including case decisions, statutes, and other events of interest to employers in the past year, as well as practical steps employers can take to minimize their risks and comply with the law. Revised annually, Employment Law Yearbook 2015 is an essential reference for in-house and outside corporate attorneys and human resource professionals, as well as attorneys representing plaintiffs and defendants in employment-related litigation.
