Odds Favor Employers in Discrimination Suits

July 16, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) ? Employers prevail in more than two-thirds of job discrimination suits in federal court ? and then win nearly half of the cases lost on appeal, according to a study of trial statistics.

Analysis of court records going back nine years shows that verdicts in favor of plaintiffs who allege job discrimination are overturned on appeal at rate of 44% of 266 appeals cases. That contrasts with an average rate of 33% for all 2,278 defendants in all other categories of appeals cases, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Trials on Trial

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In addition, these suits are less likely than other types of suits to win at trial in the first place. Less than a third (30%) of the 7,575 plaintiffs citing job discrimination that went to trial in US district court won their suits, compared to an average plaintiff win rate of 43% in all 57,878 civil trials.

In contrast, of the 1,000 plaintiffs who lost their trials, only 5.8% had their verdicts overturned on appeal, compared to the 12% recorded for all 5,100 appealing plaintiffs, according to the study based on data from the Administrative Office of the US Courts

The research, underwritten by two plaintiff side law firms, comprises suits brought under:

  • the Age Discrimination in Employment Act,
  • the Americans with Disabilities Act and
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

The study also found that employers tended to beat the odds in all 12 federal circuit courts. The Fifth US Circuit Court, covering appeals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, was hardest on plaintiffs in discrimination suits, overturning 14 of the 23 employee victories it reviewed and upholding 95.7% of the 163 employer verdicts that employees appealed.

The report is drawn from a larger study of federal appeals court behavior to be published in the University of Illinois Law Review. The employment-case analysis was underwritten by Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, New York, and Mehri, Malkin & Ross based in Washington, D.C.

ISS Rates Corporate Governance

June 4, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In an era when corporate governance issues have never been more widely publicized, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is offering institutional investors an evaluation of publicly-traded companies' corporate governance levels.

ISS, which provides proxy voting and corporate governance advice to institutional investors, said in a press release that it began the rating system Tuesday, according to a Dow Jones news report.

The ratings are scored from 1 to 100, with 100 being a perfect score, and are based on seven aspects of corporate governance, from executive and director compensation to board structure and composition.

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Each company will receive two scores: One that rates the company, and one that rates it compared to its peers.

Examples of practices that will lead to higher scores include having a majority of independent directors on a board, having significant director and officer stock ownership, and providing director education at an accredited institution.

ISS said it will initially rate all companies in the Russell 3000 Index and will eventually extend coverage to global companies.

The ratings will be available on the front page of each ISS proxy analysis, and the firm’s database of scores will be searchable by institutional clients, said a spokeswoman.

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