Employee Rights Advocacy Institute Event

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April 2012

Trial by Jury or Trial by Motion? Summary Judgment, Iqbal, and Employment Discrimination
When:	Monday, 04/23/12 - All Day
Contact:	law_review@nyls.edu
Where:	New York Law School, 2nd Floor Event Cen 185 West Broadway New York, NY 10013
Description:	Federal judges, practitioners, and legal scholars will examine the high failure rates of plaintiffs on pre- and post-trial motions in employment discrimination cases. The increasing prevalence of pre- and post-trial dispositive motions in litigation has had a demonstrably unique effect in cases alleging violations of employment discrimination laws. A substantial and growing body of evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, shows that cases alleging employment discrimination are disproportionately susceptible to dismissal before trial as well as to unfavorable JNOV motions after trial. Encouraging this movement towards pre-trial adjudication of employment discrimination cases are the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, through which the Supreme Court appeared to raise the quantum of facts that a plaintiff must plead to avoid successfully a motion to dismiss. As summary judgment is a primary mechanism for evaluating a case, these rulings raise questions as to whether the Court has blurred the line between motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment. The program will explore potential strategies to reverse this growing trend. (See event web page)