How a plaintiff goes about proving a workplace discrimination case depends on several factors, including the particular law violated, the nature of the discrimination and the status of the employee(s) who performed the discriminatory act(s). Title VII, the PDA, the ADEA and the ADA allow plaintiffs to bring claims based on disparate impact, meaning that the employer has policy or practice which is neutral toward the protected class on its face, but has a greater statistical impact on a protected class in practice. Because these types of claims involve issues of statistical proof that will go beyond a lay person’s ability to produce or even understand, I’m not going to discuss how one goes about proving these types of claims. Rather, this article will only address issues of proof in disparate treatment cases, meaning cases where the employee is intentionally subjected to adverse employment action or a harassment based on his or her membership in a protected class. This type of claim is available under Title VII, the PDA, Section 1981, the ADEA and the ADA. This article assumes that you have read the article pertaining to the law under which you wish to proceed and that you have confirmed that (1) your employer is subject to that law and (2) you qualify for protection under that law.

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