Class Action Lawsuits
At one point, a former coworker and I spoke to an attorney about a potential class action lawsuit alleging workplace discrimination by a former employer. What we learned is that, depending on the size of the company and the number of Black employees, some attorneys are looking for anywhere from 20-25 participants in a class action lawsuit as the minimum number of complainants required to consider taking the case. And, an attorney may ultimately want a larger number of employees to join the class action lawsuit as it progresses.
The issue for my coworker and I was that our job site was once an independent company that was acquired by another very large organization. Much of the work both companies did not overlap. And, for almost the first two years, there wasn’t a lot of work being done between coworkers of the two newly merged companies. The site we worked at was nearly completely disconnected from the majority of employees. Our job site employed about 8 Blacks on a full-time basis and about 2 Black employees on a part-time basis out of about 125-150 employees.
We had little to no interaction with employees at the other job sites, who were part of the parent-company. So, we had no idea how Blacks at the parent-company were treated and really had no way of targeting the employees to find out what—if anything—was going on as far as race-based discrimination, etc.
This put us at a real disadvantage, as far as trying to establish systematic discrimination versus systematic discrimination at one specific location. Nevertheless, based on the low number of Black employees at our site, we couldn’t even approach staff about a class action lawsuit. We just didn’t have the numbers to retain the services of an attorney.
Think of it this way, attorneys are often looking to prove that there is a systematic problem within a company—as opposed to a hiccup or isolated incident. Showing that many employees were treated in a discriminatory fashion is much more powerful than an isolated case that is atypical of what’s going on at company.
So, if you’re thinking of pursuing a class action lawsuit against your employer, you need to speak to other Black employees to get an understanding of where they come down on whatever issue is raging at your job and if they are willing to attach themselves to a civil suit.
If not, you can still talk to an attorney about any specific race-based discrimination, retaliation or harassment that you were subjected to. You can file as an individual, just as you can file as part of a larger group in a class action lawsuit.
If you are planning to speak to an attorney about a class action lawsuit, you should definitely be ready to provide the number of total employees, the number of Black employees, and the number of employees you’ve already spoken to, who are interested or willing to participate in a class action lawsuit.
Tomorrow I will be providing information on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, which governs civil lawsuits.
The issue for my coworker and I was that our job site was once an independent company that was acquired by another very large organization. Much of the work both companies did not overlap. And, for almost the first two years, there wasn’t a lot of work being done between coworkers of the two newly merged companies. The site we worked at was nearly completely disconnected from the majority of employees. Our job site employed about 8 Blacks on a full-time basis and about 2 Black employees on a part-time basis out of about 125-150 employees.
We had little to no interaction with employees at the other job sites, who were part of the parent-company. So, we had no idea how Blacks at the parent-company were treated and really had no way of targeting the employees to find out what—if anything—was going on as far as race-based discrimination, etc.
This put us at a real disadvantage, as far as trying to establish systematic discrimination versus systematic discrimination at one specific location. Nevertheless, based on the low number of Black employees at our site, we couldn’t even approach staff about a class action lawsuit. We just didn’t have the numbers to retain the services of an attorney.
Think of it this way, attorneys are often looking to prove that there is a systematic problem within a company—as opposed to a hiccup or isolated incident. Showing that many employees were treated in a discriminatory fashion is much more powerful than an isolated case that is atypical of what’s going on at company.
So, if you’re thinking of pursuing a class action lawsuit against your employer, you need to speak to other Black employees to get an understanding of where they come down on whatever issue is raging at your job and if they are willing to attach themselves to a civil suit.
If not, you can still talk to an attorney about any specific race-based discrimination, retaliation or harassment that you were subjected to. You can file as an individual, just as you can file as part of a larger group in a class action lawsuit.
If you are planning to speak to an attorney about a class action lawsuit, you should definitely be ready to provide the number of total employees, the number of Black employees, and the number of employees you’ve already spoken to, who are interested or willing to participate in a class action lawsuit.
Tomorrow I will be providing information on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, which governs civil lawsuits.
Labels: class action lawsuit, discrimination, filing complaints, tips and strategies
posted by S. Mary Wills at 6:56 PM
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