Recession Helps Spawn a Surge in Job Discrimination Claims
A recession means higher unemployment, but it also means something else, according to a new study: a nationwide increase in the filing of employment discrimination cases.</br></br>A preliminary draft of a study by the American Bar Foundation shows that in the two decades between 1969 and 1989, the volume of such suits in federal courts rose by an ÛÏastonishing 2,200 percent, nearly 10 times faster than all other federal civil lawsuits.Û</br></br>The study found that within that period, employment discrimination suits rose when unemployment increased and eased when joblessness fell.</br></br>a ThereÛªs been a "dramatic" shift to cases charging discrimination in firing from those charging discrimination in hiring, a In addition to the economy, state fair-employment laws and anti-discrimination agencies also influence the volume of litigation in federal courts.</br></br>100,000	suits filed in the 20-year period, with specific analysis of 1,250 cases filed in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans,