As might be expected due to the COVID pandemic, the number of employment related lawsuits has dropped in the past couple of years. Nevertheless, in the year ending March 31, 2022, the latest year for which statistics are available, there were more than 10,000 civil rights employment cases filed in federal district courts under various federal and state laws, plus more than 2,000 employment cases filed under the ADA, more than 5,600 wage and hour lawsuits and over 4,600 ERISA-based suits. While each of these laws covers more than just employee discipline, together they make up a significant percentage of the federal caseload. The good news for employers is that there has been a decline over the last 10 years in the number of new federal lawsuits. Of course, this does not include employment lawsuits brought in state courts, some of which (like California, New York or New Jersey) do not require any exhaustion of administrative remedies and permit uncapped awards of compensatory and punitive damages. It also does not include the growing number of employment discrimination claims that are now being handled through private arbitration.
In addition to lawsuits, there were 61,331 charges of discrimination filed with...
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