Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda.
Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh. What are we going to talk about today?
Goodbaum: I want to talk about how an employee can file a discrimination or retaliation complaint. So, as you know, because you’re an employment lawyer, if you’re an employee and you have a discrimination or retaliation complaint against your employer, before you can go to court, you first need to file that complaint with an administrative agency. If you’re filing under Connecticut law, you need to file with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO). If you’re filing under federal law, you need to file with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Now, a lot of employees are wondering, “Is that a complaint I can file myself, or should I have a lawyer file that complaint for me?”
DeMatteis: Ideally, Josh, yes, we would prefer that employees have legal counsel when going into these administrative proceedings with the CHRO or its federal counterpart, the EEOC. There’s a number of reasons. I’ve boiled them down to three.
The first: this is a legal proceeding. There are deadlines. There’s a lot of legalese and jargon that a person who does not have a legal education might not understand. You want to make sure that you are going through this process in a way that is most advantageous to you, and you don’t want to miss something, right? We’re afraid of the things that we don’t know. Having an employment lawyer that is well-versed in this procedure and process will save you from some of those unknowns.
The second, Josh, is, in all likelihood, your claims are going to end up being filed in court. You’re exactly right that we need to “exhaust administrative remedies” in either the CHRO or the EEOC. But a number of cases end up in court anyway, and that’s because at some point, you will get a release of jurisdiction from the CHRO or a right to sue letter from the EEOC.
At that point, you have a very short period of time — only 90 days — to file those claims in court. You wouldn’t want to be looking for a lawyer during that really short 90-day window, because in all likelihood, a good, experienced employment lawyer might not be able to get that done within the relevant time period.
Third, and of course, very importantly, is value. Likely throughout the CHRO or the EEOC process, another lawyer representing your former employer or your current employer is going to ask for what’s called a demand, and that’s a monetary amount of money that you will accept in order to settle your case. If you’re representing yourself and you don’t know how to properly value this case, you might say something that is much lower than the case is actually worth. Consider you say to your employer, “I’ll take $10 to settle this case.” But, really, an employment lawyer thinks it’s $100. It’s really difficult for an employment lawyer to come in after the fact and say, “I know you’ve already heard that my client would take $10 to settle this case, but really what he or she is looking for is $100.” That is something that is not likely to result in a successful settlement negotiation.
Now, you might find yourself in a position to not be able to find an employment lawyer to file for you in the CHRO or the EEOC. You absolutely can do so yourself. Just make sure that you understand the timing restrictions and file within 300 days from the last adverse employment action.
Goodbaum: Great information and advice, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you all for watching. We’ll see you next time.