Attorneys Address Impact of Supreme Court’s Exhaustion Requirement Ruling with National Media

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Title VII’s administrative exhaustion requirement—whereby an aggrieved employee first must file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or a state agency before filing a lawsuit—is merely a claim-processing rule, rather than jurisdictional. Bloomberg Law, Business Insurance and SHRM interviewed attorneys Jeffrey Fritz and Paul Goatley to provide analysis on what the ruling means for employers. 

Paul told Business Insurance: “the practical impact really hasn’t moved the needle that much. It requires employers who are sued by employees to compare the lawsuit’s allegations with the claims included in the employee’s EEOC complaint — which they should be doing anyway — and move to dismiss the case if there is any difference between the two. This must be done at the case’s beginning. The ruling is pretty straightforward.”

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