Filing a Complaint against Discrimination

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by: Orlando Matsota
Word Count: 533
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 Time: 7:25 AM

When you feel that a certain decision, regarding your hiring, promotion or firing, or any such others, on the part of your employer is not exactly fair, you may not have any legal way to challenge it. Most Florida employees are within the ‘at-will’ employment category. However, if the same is unlawful, there is a possible remedy.

What you need to do is consult a discrimination attorney and discuss whether the federal and/or state laws (The Florida Civil Rights Act) do regard it as unlawful. If so, what can you do to find a remedy to the situation? The first thing to do is file a complaint with the federal or state agency supervising the implementation of the laws.

Here are the answers to three of the important questions regarding this.

Where do you file the complaint? You may choose to file a discrimination complaint either at the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR), the state administrative agency, or at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal administrative agency. Ask your attorney to assist you in this filing.

What is the time limit? While the FCHR gives you a period of 365 days, from the date of the alleged discrimination to file, the EEOC offers only 180 days, from the same date, to file. If the anti-discriminatory laws of the state also apply, the time limit for filing under EEOC extends to 300 days.

What happens after you file? Both the agencies conduct their own investigations. However, the outcome of the determinations is quite different from each other. Discuss this with your Florida discrimination attorney beforehand to know how to proceed.

After the completion of the EEOC investigation, there are three possible outcomes:

It may find that there was no discrimination occurred. In this case, you may file a lawsuit within 90 days from this decision.

It may reach a decision that there was indeed the occurrence of discrimination. The Commission may try to help find a resolution using mediation or arbitration, failing which they provide you the right-to-sue letter.

It may issue a right-to-sue letter after preliminary investigation. (This happens more often because of the workload considerations).

There are four distinct possibilities after the completion of a FCHR investigation:

If the agency finds reasonable cause to believe the occurrence of discrimination, it may give you a choice between an administrative hearing and a civil lawsuit.

If the agency finds no such reasonable cause, you may have an administrative hearing only. This limits your right to file a discrimination suit at court unless the finding of the agency is overturned.

If the agency is incapable of completing its investigation within the stipulated 180 days, you have the right to proceed with your case filing at court.

If the agency fails to complete its investigation on time, but does it later, you have the right to file a lawsuit whether it finds reasonable cause or not.

About the Author

Orlando Matsota, a legal services consultant, offers helpful tips regarding legal matters concerning employment discrimination laws. If you are looking for a Florida Discrimination Attorney, he suggests you to visit http://www.florida-employment-lawyer.org/

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