This project will combine a quantitative analysis of confidential data obtained from the EEOC on complaints filed with the agency from 1990 to 2002, a quantitative analysis of a large random sample of discrimination filings in federal courts from 1988 to 2003, interviews with discrimination litigators and other informants about trends in the field;, and qualitative analyses of a subset of federal case filings that will include in-depth interviews with parties and lawyers and analyses of case file documents. This combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of lawyer-economists and lawyer-sociologists, will expand the basic understanding of changes in employment discrimination litigation and address theoretical issues in law and economics and the sociology of law. The research will endeavor to predict the transition from an EEOC complaint to a federal lawsuit, a significant innovation in empirical studies of the selection of disputes for litigation. The collection of data over time will also permit an investigation of the relative effects of significant changes in law, the business cycle, and the presence of protected groups in the workplace on the nature of lawsuits filed and their characteristic outcome. The research will test whether changes in legal culture and in the incentives offered to plaintiffs now matter more than the business cycle in explaining trends in litigation. In-depth interviews with parties and lawyers will cast light on the rights consciousness of contemporary discrimination plaintiffs and revisit important questions about the circumstances under which perceived victims of discrimination will turn to law, as well as how defendants regard and respond to claims of discrimination. Finally, the research will examine the role of lawyers in discrimination litigation, and consider how the strategies of lawyers have shaped developments in the field. In addressing these questions the research will yield a more thorough understanding of how discrimination litigation works, what it means to the parties and professionals involved with it, and the factors producing change in the system.
