The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Office of General Counsel

Annual Report
Fiscal Year 2002



Table of Contents

  1. Structure and Function of the Office of General Counsel
    1. Mission of the Office
    2. Headquarters Programs
    3. District Office Legal Units
  2. Summary of Accomplishments
    1. Overview of Fiscal Year 2002
    2. Litigation Highlights
  3. Statistical Analysis of EEOC Litigation
    1. Generally
    2. Suits Filed
    3. Suits Resolved
    4. Resources
  4. Significant Appellate Decisions and Briefs
    1. Appellate Highlights
    2. Significant Decisions
    3. Significant Appellate Briefs

I. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL

A. Mission of the Office

The General Counsel conducts litigation on behalf of the Commission under four federal statutes, seeking relief for victims of the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age and disability.

In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to oversee the employment provisions prohibiting discrimination, which were embedded in Title VII of the Act. The Commission, however, had no ability to enforce these provisions until Congress amended Title VII in 1972 and authorized the EEOC to file suit in federal court. At the same time, Congress created the position of General Counsel, responsible for conducting the Commission's litigation. The General Counsel is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a four year term.

As the EEOC's statutory duties have grown, so has the litigation responsibility of the General Counsel. In 1979, a Presidential Order transferred the enforcement functions for the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Equal Pay Act (EPA) from the Department of Labor to the EEOC. In 1990, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), vesting authority for the enforcement of the employment provisions with the EEOC.

Title VII and the ADA cover employers with 15 or more employees; the ADEA covers employers with 20 or more employees; and the EPA covers all private employers. Although the Department of Justice brings suits against state and local governments under Title VII and the ADA, the Commission files suits against state and local governments under the ADEA and the EPA.

B. Headquarters Programs

C. District Office Legal Units

Located throughout the country, the EEOC's District Office Legal Units help investigate discrimination charges and litigate cases filed in court.

The Commission currently has 24 District Offices, each, except for Albuquerque, containing a legal unit which conducts Commission litigation. The legal units also provide advice and other legal support to the District Office enforcement units, which are responsible for investigating charges of discrimination. Thus, in addition to litigating cases, legal unit attorneys work closely with the enforcement units in the intake and investigation of charges and responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Each District Office legal unit is under the direction of a Regional Attorney. The Regional Attorneys manage staffs of one to two supervisory trial attorneys and five to fifteen trial attorneys, as well as support staff. Since 1999, the Regional Attorneys also manage trial attorneys stationed in approximately twenty-one local and area offices as well as in the Washington Field Office. Additionally, many Regional Attorneys supervise a Hearings Unit, composed of administrative judges who conduct hearings on claims of discrimination in federal employment.

II. SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

A. Overview of Fiscal Year 2002

B. Litigation Highlights

III. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF EEOC LITIGATION

A. Generally

On October 1, 2001, the start of fiscal year 2002, there were 523 merit cases in active litigation. (Direct suits, interventions and suits to enforce conciliation agreement are "merit" suits.) In FY 2002, OGC filed 332 merit suits for a total litigation workload of 855. OGC also resolved 345 merit cases throughout this year. At the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2002), there were 510 cases in active litigation. The 345 merit resolutions yielded a total of $52,845,499 in monetary relief.

B. Suits Filed

In FY 2002, the field legal units filed 332 merit lawsuits; 327 direct suits and interventions and five suits to enforce conciliation agreements. 4

Merit Filings in FY 2002
  Count Percent
Direct 326 98.2%
Intervention 1 0.3%
Administ. Enf 5 1.5%
Total 332 100.0%

C. Suits Resolved

In FY 2002, the Office of General Counsel resolved a total of 345 merit lawsuits (direct suits, interventions and suits to enforce administrative settlements). 5 These 345 resolutions yielded a total of $52,845,499 in relief.

Merit Resolutions in FY 2002
  Count Percent
Direct 340 98.5%
Intervention 2 0.6%
Administ. Enf. 3 0.9%
Total 345 100.0%

As shown in the table below, the number of merit resolutions was up in FY 2002 compared with FY 2001. Similarly, the total monetary relief was up by $1.6 million.

Resolutions in FYs 2001 and 2002
  FY 2001 FY 2002 Change
Merit Suits 319 345 + 8.2%
Relief (in millions) $51.2 $52.8 + 3.1%

The number of merit resolutions in FY 2002 was greater than the average of the last five fiscal years (see table below).

Resolutions Since FY 1997
  Average
FYs 1997-2001
FY 2002
Merit Suits 310.4 345

D. Resources

EEOC Litigation: 1993 - 2002

FY 93 FY 94 FY 95 FY 96 FY 97 FY 98 FY 99 FY 00 FY01 FY02
ALL SUITS FILED 481 425 373 193 330 411 464 328 430 364
MERITS 398 357 328 167 299 371 437 290 385 332
TITLE VII 260 235 193 106 174 235 325 222 269 246
ADA 3 34 81 38 79 79 51 23 62 41
ADEA 115 74 41 13 36 36 41 27 32 29
EPA 2 0 1 1 0 2 3 3 5 2
CONCURRENT 18 14 12 9 10 19 17 15 17 14
SUBPOENA 83 68 45 26 31 40 27 38 45 32
ALL RESOLUTIONS 427 469 338 296 245 331 349 438 360 373
MERITS 362 408 319 278 214 295 319 405 319 345
TITLE VII 235 266 216 175 122 181 192 305 219 247
ADA 1 9 25 52 45 69 65 52 42 61
ADEA 99 109 61 35 35 35 41 35 34 20
EPA 2 3 2 0 0 1 0 4 6 3
CONCURRENT 25 21 15 16 12 9 21 9 18 14
SUBPOENA 65 61 19 18 31 36 30 33 41 28
BENEFITS $36.4 $39.5 $18.9 $50.8 $114.7 $95.5 $98.4 $49.8 $51.2 $52.8
TITLE VII $7.0 $23.6 $9.0 $18.8 $95.0 $62.0 $49.2 $35.1 $29.8 $29.0
ADA $0.2 $0.4 $1.4 $2.5 $1.1 $2.4 $2.9 $3.0 $2.2 $12.0
ADEA $26.6 $15.0 $8.0 $10.5 $18.0 $29.5 $42.5 $11.2 $3.1 $1.3
EPA $0.1 $0.0 $0.2 $0.0 $0.3 $0.7 $0.3 $0.2 $0.3 $0.2
CONCURRENT $2.5 $0.5 $0.3 $19.0 $0.3 $0.9 $3.5 $0.3 $15.8 $10.3

IV. SIGNIFICANT APPELLATE DECISIONS AND BRIEFS

A. Appellate Highlights

The Supreme Court issued four decisions in fiscal year 2002 in cases in which the Commission participated to address employment discrimination issues. In each case, the Court adopted the position urged by the Commission. EEOC v. Waffle House, Inc.; Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Echazabal; Edelman v. Lynchburg College; and Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A. (See descriptions, below.)

An FY 2002 study of the EEOC's Litigation Program over a five-year period (fiscal years 1997 through 2001) demonstrated that its Appellate Services has an extremely effective record. During the period studied, the EEOC won 12 of 15 appeals of trials that were decided. This represents a success rate of 80%, which compares favorably to the 16% success rate of employment discrimination cases handled by the private bar, as reported in Eisenberg and Schwab, Double Standard on Appeal: An empirical Analysis of employment Discrimination Cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals (July 16, 2001).

In the 11 cases where EEOC had prevailed at trial, it succeeded in ten or 90.9% on appeal, compared with the success rate of 56.4% on appeals by private plaintiffs who had won below. EEOC won two of the four cases it had lost below or 50%, compared with private plaintiffs who won only 5.8% of the cases they had lost below. See Eisenberg and Schwab, supra.

B. Significant Decisions

C. Significant Appellate Briefs

Appellate Services filed 89 briefs during fiscal year 2002: 55 as a party in Commission cases on appeal and 34 as amicus curiae. Some of the more notable briefs are discussed below:


1. Also, 31 subpoena enforcement actions were filed and one suit seeking preliminary relief.

2. Another 28 suits to enforce administrative subpoenas were also resolved.

3. These cases are brought under the Equal Pay Act and/or Title VII.

4. The field legal units also filed 31 subpoena enforcement actions, and one action seeking preliminary relief.

5. OGC also resolved 28 subpoena enforcement actions.


This page was last modified on June 16, 2003.

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