Every Pennsylvania employee deserves to be able to go to work, get the job done, and receive a regular paycheck. However, some workers experience discrimination during their careers. This is unacceptable and can be tough to prove without documentation to back up their cases. Even with the help of an aggressive employment discrimination lawyer, a victim of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and related matters can experience an uphill battle to prove the discrimination occurred.
What Type of Discrimination Documentation is Important?
Like most legal matters, discrimination cases are unique to the circumstances of the employee and employer. For this reason, every discrimination claim needs to be supported by documents and information that points back to problems. Simply stating that discrimination happened is not enough to push a case through the courts to settlement or a civil trial.
A thorough job description created prior to the discrimination could be a good starting point, particularly if the worker is suggesting that the discrimination is related to expected tasks. Illustrating that the victim was expected to do something co-workers were not, despite identical job descriptions, helps showcase potentially discriminatory behaviors.
Another type of documentation that can reveal discrimination because of sex, age, gender, religion, or another protected factor can be the worker’s performance reviews. Whether handled monthly, quarterly, annually, or sporadically, performance reviews can reveal a wealth of data. In some cases of discrimination, performance reviews before and after discrimination reveal a distinctive pattern of blaming the worker. They can also be used to indicate that despite an employee’s glowing performance review, they were denied the opportunity for advancements or higher pay.
Emails also play a vital role in setting up a case of employment discrimination. They do not have to be blatant, although the more incendiary they are against the victim, the more useful they could be as evidence. Emails will usually need to be printed off eventually, although potential discrimination clients who send copies of emails to their personal accounts may want to transfer them virtually to their attorneys for consideration.
Claims made against the employer or a specific employee, such as a discriminatory manager, can also map out the chain of events that led to the worker filing a lawsuit. These types of claims are usually directed to the human resources department. However, they may also be sent to the head of a union or a statewide or national association. Any replies should also be well-documented.
Will an Attorney Receive Documentation?
Although an employment discrimination lawyer in Pennsylvania will conduct discovery to find other documentation to support a client’s claims of discrimination, lawyers appreciate having information upfront. That way, they can start to piece together an idea of how to fight for the rights of their clients.
Bucks County Employment Discrimination Lawyers at The Gold Law Firm P.C. Advocate for Those Experiencing Discrimination in the Workplace
If you have been discriminated against while working in Pennsylvania, contact a Bucks County employment discrimination lawyer at The Gold Law Firm P.C. For a free consultation, call us at 215-569-1999 or complete an online form. Located in Philadelphia, we serve clients throughout Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, northeast Philadelphia, Bucks County, Chester County, Delaware County, and Montgomery County.
