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Should I get an attorney to help me file a charge with the EEOC?

Best Employment Lawyer Answer: Absolutely, yes. Before filing a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) you should definitely first discuss your particular work issues with a qualified and experienced employment law attorney. Because failing to prepare a charge form properly and completely can cause an employee to lose certain claims, it is best to have an attorney guide you through this process. Moreover, the primary benefit to filing with the EEOC is that you need to get a Right To Sue letter from the EEOC before filing a federal employment discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA”), or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”). Obviously, at that point, employees need an attorney to file the lawsuit – and there is no point in waiting to get legal help from an attorney – especially when attorneys are available to help you without charging you any money up front. (Read: What is the Spitz No Fee Guarantee?)  And while the EEOC may provide free mediation in some cases, it will not help an employee understand what his or her case is worth nor help the employee get the best result in mediation, which means employees really should have an employment attorney assist with the mediation.

Other than that, do not expect much out of the EEOC. The EEOC’s own objective numbers bear this out.

Will the EEOC help me sue my employer if I file a charge of discrimination?

Best Employment Discrimination Attorney Answer: Not likely. According to the EEOC’s own Fiscal Year 2021 Agency Financial Report and Charge Statistics Report, the EEOC accepted 61,331 charges in 2021, which was a 40 percent drop in charges accepted from 2011 when 99,947 charges were accepted by the EEOC. Despite accepting 61,331 charges in 2021, the EEOC only filed 116 lawsuits during that same period. This means that only .189 percent of charges were selected by the EEOC to be pursued. Stated another way, the EEOC will only choose to pursue one out of every 500 charges. But it gets worse for individual employees. The EEOC admittedly has a Strategic Enforcement Plan, which it expressly designed to narrowly target its use of its limited resources to attack only certain types of claims or claims that impact larger employers or large populations of employees. Essentially, the EEOC cherry picks certain cases to make a point and leaves the rest of the employees to fend for themselves.

These numbers are not aberration. According to the EEOC’s Enforcement and Litigation Statistics and Agency Financial Report for 2020, 67,448 charges of discrimination filed and the EEOC filed only 93 lawsuits against employers – that is a .137 percentage rate or about one lawsuit brought for every 750 charges.

To emphasize this point, Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm filed over 1,100 employment lawsuits on behalf of employees in 2021, which is about ten times the amount filed by the EEOC. Importantly, this number does not include the significant number of cases that our attorneys settled before filing a lawsuit in Court.

Are there any other problems going through the EEOC?

Best EEOC Lawyer Answer: One of the biggest issues that can arise is that employees do not realize that they wholly lose control over the claim should the EEOC elect to pursue the claim. The case is brought in the name of the EEOC, who has no obligation to keep the employee informed of the cases progress. Worst yet, the EEOC has complete control of when to settle claims and can do so with the wronged employee getting little or no money. Specifically, the EEOC’s Settlement Standards and Procedures provide: “General Counsel controls the agency’s litigation, and therefore has the authority to decide whether to settle Commission lawsuits and on what terms.” Indeed, these employees have no rights to show up to court dates or mediation.

So, in conclusion, the EEOC will not pursue 99.811 percent of the charges filed; and in the .189 percent of the time when the EEOC pursues the charges, the EEOC essentially cuts the employee out of the process.

On the other hand, when an employee pursues a claim through a private employee’s rights attorney, the attorney must ethically keep the employee informed and the employee retains full decision-making rights on when to settle a claim, obviously with the benefit of being informed by the lawyers.

What should I do about discrimination at work?

Best Wrongful Termination Law Firm Answer: The most important thing for an employee facing discrimination in the workplace or a wrongfully fired employee to do is to get informed. The best way to get informed is by consulting with an experienced employment law attorney about the specifics of your case. Even if you have already filed with the EEOC, it is not too late to get an attorney to help you with your claims.

If you are searching the web because you’ve been wrongfully fired or terminated; your manager or boss is discriminating against or harassing you because of your race, national origin, gender, age, religion or disability; or even think that you might need an employment lawyer, then call the right attorney to schedule a free and confidential consultation. Call our lawyers in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Toledo and Cincinnati to get help now. Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm and its experienced attorneys are dedicated to protecting employees’ rights and solving employment disputes.

Disclaimer:

This employment law website is an advertisement. The materials available at the top of this page and at this employment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking, “How do I file a charge with the EEOC”, “How do I get the EEOC to take my claim,” “where do I file an EEOC charge” or “I was fired today because I’m black”, it would be best for to contact an Ohio attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular employment law issue or problem. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of The Spitz Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.

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