What Do Discrimination Suits Accomplish?

Numerous amounts of cases are filed each year. Do they accomplish anything? Do you know of any companies who have changed following a lawsuit?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jason Flaugh on June 20, 2011 at 7:34pm

I will let others comment with countless case studies for the second part of your question; there are studies that support either side.

Lawsuits are in general intended to punish those that violate the law and reward (compensate) damaged parties. Precedents help lay down ground rules; if you don’t want to lose x dollars then you shouldn’t do y to person z. If lawsuits were that simple, then I would say yes, they accomplish much, as they limit the mistreatment of others. For example, a case such as talked about in http://www.diversity-executive.com/article.php?article=1191. I have seen different types of lawsuits and have been in organizations where a person claims they were referred to by a negative racial slur, and decided to sue. Should a racial slur, if used one time, be allowed as grounds for a discrimination suit? I will let you decide that on your own.

The real problem is this, money rewarded to the victim(s) is taken out of the organization, and thus the organization has fewer funds to spend on “soft” programs such as diversity and inclusion. See the problem? If a company is financially burdened and cannot offer the services necessary, due in part to a lawsuit, then a downward spiral will occur. Ultimately, unless the suit is the result of a cultural problem that will be dealt with, lawsuits that are the result of one manager/worker acting inappropriately, really do not do much good, especially if the organization does not inform other managers/workers of what may lead to a lawsuit.

Thank you for starting the discussion thread. What are your thoughts/experiences regarding these matters?

-Jason