Whether a person brings an employment law claim in a state or federal court, the steps under which most cases proceed are similar:
A court case is started by filing a complaint. A complaint is a written set of a numbered paragraphs that describes the party filing the action, the facts of the case, and any statutes or types of common law or constitutional rights that the plaintiff claims has been violated. The party filing the action is known as the plaintiff, and the party defending the complaint is called the defendant.
Upon receiving the complaint the defendant files an answer or a motion to dismiss. An answer is a written set of numbered paragraphs, corresponding to the numbered paragraph in the complaint, in which the defendant either admits or denies the allegations in the complaint. The answer also contains any additional affirmative defenses to the plaintiff’s claims that may be appropriate.
Example: As well as denying an allegation, the defendant (employer) may allege as an affirmative defense that the plaintiff was fired because of excessive absenteeism. The defendant may also claim that the plaintiff is barred by the statute of limitations.
A motion to dismiss, as opposed to an answer, may be filed by a defendant if the defendant believes that even if the facts claimed in the complaint were undisputed they are not legally sufficient to allow the court to decide the case in the plaintiff’s favor.
Example: If the plaintiff filed a single state-law claim against the defendant in a federal court, the defendant might file a motion to dismiss arguing that the federal court does not have jurisdiction over the state-law claim.
If the defendant files a motion to dismiss, the plaintiff has to file a written response to oppose it. Each party then files a brief, which is a document containing factual and legal arguments to the judge as to why the party should prevail. The judge then determines if the case should proceed to the next step or be dismissed.
If the case is not dismissed, or if the defendant filed an answer to the complaint rather than a motion to dismiss, the next step in the case is generally discovery. Discovery is a process in which the parties are permitted to obtain information relevant to the case from their opponents and other persons. The purpose is to provide the litigants with all possible information relevant to a case as to avoid unfair surprises at the time of trial.
The most common device through which discovery is accomplished include depositions, where a witness is asked questions that he or she must answer under oath; other methods include production of document requests, where a party is asked to provide various documents and other types of non-testimonial evidence pertinent to the case; interrogatories, where parties must provide written answers to written questions put to them by their opponents under oath; and request for admission, where parties are compelled to admit or deny the truthfulness of particular written statements of facts presented to them by their opponents.
Once discovery is completed, one or both parties may file a motion for summary judgment. A motion for summary judgment is a claim by a party that if all of the material, undisputed facts disclosed by discovery are considered, the other party cannot establish a winning case and that the case should be dismissed. A party filing a motion for summary judgment attempts to support the motion through filing of a legal brief. The other party may file a brief arguing that the relevant facts and the law are sufficient to establish his or her case as having merit if it was tried.
In deciding a motion for summary judgment the judge must construe any undisputed facts or inferences that can be made from those facts in favor of the party against whom summary judgment is filed. This is because a summary judgment motion is only intended to permit a court to decide cases that are clear-cut factually in favor of one party over the other, and judges are not supposed to make determinations on disputed facts that could determine the outcome of a case until the case is submitted to a full trial.
If summary judgment is not granted by the court, the case proceeds to trial. At trial, each party has the opportunity to present its case through witness testimony, documents and other evidence, and the opening statements and closing arguments of its attorneys. Any factual disputes are then decided by the jury or the judge. If a jury is used, the judge instructs the jury on how to weigh evidence to decide any factual disputes and also advises the jury as to what factual findings are necessary for them to find the defendant liable or not.
Following a jury trial, the party against whom a jury verdict is delivered can attempt to invalidate the jury verdict without commencing an appeal by filing post-trial motions. These motions either consist of a request for a new trial, based upon some alleged unfairness or impropriety during trial, or a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict is basically a claim by the losing party that under proper application of the law, no reasonable jury could have come to the verdict that was arrived at. These motions are rarely granted by the judge. Jury trial is often decided without a written opinion.
Opinions in employment law cases are found in the decisions of the United States District Court. These are trial-level courts in the federal judiciary system. The decisions of these courts are reported in the publican called The Federal Supplement.