Mandatory Arbitration vs. Employment Litigation - Chapter 29 - AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - Third Edition

Page Count:

12 pages

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1 PDF Download

Published:

December, 2015

Author Detail:

Evan J. Spelfogel is a member of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., specializing in labor and employment and employee benefits law. After graduating from law school, Mr. Spelfogel served five years with the United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor and the National Labor Relations Board. He is a co-founder and past chair of the New York State Bar Association's Section of Labor and Employment Law, was a long-time member of the governing Council of the American Bar Association's Labor & Employment Law Section, is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, and is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Judah L. Rosenblatt, Georgetown Law School '2016, a summer associate at Epstein Becker & Green, assisted in the update of this chapter.

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Originally from:

AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - Third Edition

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I. Introduction

Employment litigation has grown at a rate many times greater than litigation in general. Twenty-five times more employment discrimination cases are being filed annually now than in 1970, an increase almost 100% greater than most other types of civil litigation combined. There is currently a backlog of over 50,000 employment discrimination cases at the EEOC and thousands more at state and local governmental agencies. Discrimination claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act1 and with respect to gay, lesbian and transgender rights and genetic discrimination have only now begun to impact these statistics. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) is under tremendous congressional pressure to reduce its budget and to cut back on investigators and support staff needed to handle the influx of new cases.

Currently, there are over 25,000 wrongful discharge and discrimination cases pending in state and federal courts nationwide. Nearly all of these cases involve jury trials with lengthy delays and unpredictable results. Studies indicate that plaintiffs win nearly 70% of these cases and that the average jury award for a single wrongfully fired employee is now approximately $700,000 (with many in the millions of dollars); class actions drive these dollar amounts significantly higher. Moreover, it takes three to five years before the case goes to a jury and, although many jury verdicts are reduced or set aside by the courts, it is not unusual for a jury to award hundreds of millions of dollars in major class actions.