Presenting an employment discrimination claim can be fraught with pitfalls and obstacles. Take, for example, the fact that an employee cannot even get to court without properly exhausting his administrative remedies. That means, making sure you get to the right agency within 180 days, completing the multitude of charge forms and intake questionnaires with little or no assistance from the agency itself. Then, the employee better be sure to check the correct boxes on the forms regarding the basis of discrimination. Heaven forbid he leaves out a protected class or fails to check the retaliation box. Be sure not to check too many boxes, though, or else you risk making inconsistent claims that have different burdens of proof (but for causation, mixed motive and direct evidence all come to mind).

Congratulations on filing a charge. Next you need to ensure that the case does not get dismissed by the agency with a premature right to sue letter. That will only result in yet one more needless battle once your case is in court. If your client is one of the lucky few, the agency may actually do an investigation and issue findings within a year or two of the case being filed. Whatever the outcome at the administrative level, the employee will get his day in court, right?

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