Reinforcing the burden on any putative class to satisfy all of the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the district court’s order denying the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in an employment discrimination action. Moussouris v. Microsoft Corp., No. 18-35791 (9th Cir.
Title VII Claims
The Next Wave? Serial Discrimination Filings from Prior Class Claims
Notwithstanding the employers’ victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which made it clear that arbitration and class action waiver regimes do not violate the National Labor Relations Act, employers are now facing another obstacle: serial arbitration filings. These filings, in an attempt by some plaintiffs’ attorneys to overwhelm…
Snooze and Lose: Defendants Need to Raise Plaintiffs’ Failure to File Charge Early in Litigation
The requirement under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that a complainant file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) prior to filing suit in federal court is a prudential, claim-processing rule that does not determine whether a court has subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute, the U.S. Supreme Court has…
Is Equal Pay the Next Big Thing in Class Actions?
On February 1st, the EEOC announced it would begin requiring employers to submit information on employee wages and work hours broken down by gender, race and EEO-1 category as part of its annual EEO-1 reporting process. For the first time, the EEOC (and the OFCCP) will have nationwide data on employee pay to…
First Circuit Invokes Inclusive Communities in Nixing Disparate Impact Challenge and Gifts Safe Harbor Defense to Employer
At the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June, we blogged about a housing discrimination case that might be used by employers to limit disparate impact liability. Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 2507 (2015). Less than two months later, a divided three judge…
Will Plaintiff Housing Victory Help Employers?
Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court made clear that disparate impact discrimination claims are cognizable under the Federal Housing Act (“FHA”) despite the lack of explicit language authorizing such a cause of action. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. (here is a link to the decision).…
Jackson Lewis Class Action Summit 2013 in NYC
On November 8, 2013, Jackson Lewis held its Employment Class Action Summit: Key Strategies for Defending Class Actions at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. The purpose of the event was to inform attendees of the significant trends in employment class action litigation and offer key pre- and post-litigation defense strategies. Experienced Jackson…