In 1999, employment discrimination cases constituted "one out of every 11.7 civil filings in federal court, or 8.6 percent of the total of 261,651 civil cases filed that year." See Nancy Montwieler, EEOC Case Filings Said 'Leveling Off,' But Still A Large Share of Caseload, Daily Lab. Rep. (BNA) No. 58 (Mar. 24, 2000). In 1998, 23,735 employment discrimination complaints were filed in federal court. This represented nearly triple the amount of those complaints filed in federal court in 1990 of 8,413. See Marika F. X. Litras, U.S. Dept. of Justice Special Report: Civil Rights Complaints in U.S. District Courts, 1990-98, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/crcusdc.pdf.

      The increase in employment discrimination complaints during those eight years represented 65% of the overall increase in all forms of civil rights complaints, not just those involving employment claims. Id. Also, the majority (at least 60% for every year from 1990-98) of civil rights complaints brought in federal court from 1990-98 were resolved by some form of dismissal. Id. at 6. Those dismissals include settled cases, voluntary dismissals, dismissals for lack of jurisdiction over the person or the subject matter and want of prosecution. Although the number of employment discrimination complaints have nearly tripled from 1990-98, the percentage of cases being resolved by out of court settlement (from 35% in 1990 to 39% in 1998) and voluntary dismissal (from 9% in 1990 to 14% in 1998) has also increased while the percentage of employment discrimination cases being resolved at trial has decreased (from 9% in 1990 to 5% in 1998). Id. Accordingly, employment discrimination complaints play a major role in federal court litigation and the use of federal civil procedure plays a major role in their resolution. Also, the actual resolution of those claims supports a general trend of trying to resolve these disputes outside of the court process, especially without having to go to trial.

      My presentation will describe how I use exercises involving employment discrimination claims to help students understand how the federal rules of civil procedure work in a practical way. Also, I use these same exercises to help students compare the benefits of resolving such claims through alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Procedural justice and ethical implications are explored in these exercises which will be discussed during the breakout session presentation via a PowerPoint slide show describing the exercises. In the exercises, students are asked to draft an employment discrimination complaint or respond to the complaint drafted by fellow students. Then they are asked to negotiate the decision of settling or using mediation to resolve their dispute before summary judgment proceedings are invoked. Finally, the students are asked to outline an argument for summary judgment or outline a response to a summary judgment claim made by a fellow student. These exercises use employment discriminations claims to highlight the use of the federal rules of civil procedure in resolving these claims. And, the students are also exposed to the benefits and costs of using ADR and settlement rather than the court procedures to resolve an employment discrimination dispute.