Litigation Program Study: Key Points

• Over the five year period, EEOC obtained $409.7 million in monetary benefits through litigation compared with $585.9 million actual monies obtained through the administrative enforcement process.
• The average actual monetary recovery per charge for which benefits were obtained in the administrative process (excluding recoveries through alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes) was $24,632.77 compared with the average monetary benefits per lawsuit resolved of $263,945.
• Over the five year period, OGC filed a total of 1,963 suits; of those, 1768 were direct suits, 14 were interventions, 162 were subpoena enforcement actions, 15 were Temporary Restraining Orders and four were suits to enforce administrative agreements resolving charges.
• A total of 570 direct suits and interventions (31.9% of all filings) were filed on behalf of a class; another 1,212 (68.1%) were filed on behalf of individuals.
• Interventions over the five year period account for less than 1% of all suits filed (0.71%) and of suits filed on the merits (0.79%)
• In the suits filed over the entire period, suits alleging sex discrimination account for 30.1%; suits alleging retaliation constitute 22.2%; those alleging race discrimination comprise 13.5%; disability 12.8%; age 8.2%; national origin 7%; religion 4.3%; equal pay 1.6%; and color 0.25%.
• In FY 1997, the number of class cases on the active litigation docket was 112, or 30% of the total docket; by FY 2001, this had increased to 210 class cases on the active litigation docket, or 40% of the total docket.
• In FY 1997, EEOC filed four suits alleging equal pay violations. From FY 1998 through FY 2001, EEOC filed 36 suits alleging equal pay violations, averaging nine such suits each year.
• From FY 1997-FY 2001, OGC resolved a total of 1,723 suits; of those, 1,534 were direct suits, 18 were interventions, 151 were subpoena enforcement actions, 17 were Temporary Restraining Orders and three were suits to enforce administrative agreements resolving charges.
• Of the 1,552 direct suits and interventions resolved, 439 resolved suits (28.3%) had been brought on behalf of a class; another 1,113 (71.7%) of those resolutions had been filed on behalf of individuals.
• The number of class cases filed correlates with the number of attorneys on board. When attorney staffing has been at its lowest (e.g., FY 97, 196 attorneys), the Commission filed fewer class cases (93); as the number of attorneys on board rose (e.g., FY 01, 248 attorneys), the number of class cases filed also rose (133).
• Those legal units with the highest number of cases filed (New York - 119; Philadelphia - 113; Baltimore - 100) are among the offices with the highest attorney averages (New York - 17.6 attorneys; Philadelphia - 10.6; Baltimore - 14.6).
• Those legal units with the highest number of class cases filed (New York - 71; Chicago - 42) are also among the offices with the highest attorney averages (New York - 17.6 attorneys; Chicago -15.6)
• The average monetary benefit per case resolved over the five year period is $263,945.
• The highest recovery in a single case in the Commission's history was $81.5 million in Shores & EEOC v. Publix Super Markets, Inc.
• Dividing the total monetary benefits obtained ($409,641,905) by the average number of attorneys (231) over the entire time period yields an average monetary amount of $1,773,341.6 recovered per attorney on board.
• Over the five year period, the total percentage of successful resolutions (consent decrees, settlement agreements and favorable court orders) was 90.72%.
• The Commission's rate of success in trials is 60.24%, compared with the success rate of private plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases of 26.8% .
• The Commission's rate of success in the appeals of trials is 80%, compared with the success rate of 16% for the private bar.

This page was last modified on August 13, 2002.

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