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Same Evidence Used to Reject Bias Claim, Support Retaliation Claim

By Jeffrey Campolongo
November 02, 2015

The (over)use of the summary judgment process in employment discrimination cases has been heartily scrutinized over the years. As this'author has pointed out, there is at least one prominent federal judge (U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa) who thinks the use of summary judgment, as a practice, should be eliminated in these types of cases. (See Time to Abolish Summary Judgment in Employment Law Cases? published in this newsletter's ALM affiliate The Legal Intelligencer on July 26, 2013.)

Often, federal courts are loath to meddle with most employment-related business decisions, claiming it is not for the courts to second-guess as a kind of “super-personnel department.” The result is frequently a judicial rubber stamp of sorts, giving employers the imprimatur to fire/discipline at will.

Of course, when courts do undertake the fact-intensive approach to employment disputes and apply legal standards intended to allow juries to decide these cases, the summary judgment process can backfire for the employer. As we have all heard countless times in our legal careers, it is the facts that drive the case. Take, for example, the decision rendered last month in Lassiter v. The Children s Hospital of Philadelphia (E.D. Pa. Sept. 21, 2015, No. 14-1037).

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