Statistics recently obtained from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) reveal that employment-related lawsuits filed in the nation’s federal courts fell almost 3% to 25,960 in fiscal year (FY) 2021, the lowest total in the past 20 years.
This figure is somewhat misleading, however, since lawsuits filed in three of the five employment-related categories tracked by the AO – (1) Employment (which includes Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and Section 1981); (2) the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and (3) the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) – actually increased in FY 2021 over the previous year, with ADA and FMLA lawsuits hitting all time highs. Decreases in filings under the other two subcategories – (4) the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and (5) the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) – were the main reason the overall number of lawsuits in all five categories showed a slight drop from FY 2020.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.