When a company is sued for discrimination against a protected class, in regards to it's hiring, is there a presumption of innocence?
That is, does the accuser have to prove that the company discriminated?
or
Does the company have to prove that it didn't?
It seems to me that except for rare, obvious cases, proving anything either way has to be difficult, if no impossible.
How does this work?
Yes, all lawsuits rely on a burden of proof. That burden is the plaintiff's. It also does not have to be beyond a reasonable doubt, in a civil trial, the way it is in a criminal trial. In a civil trial, even if the defendant shows reason to doubt the evidence laid out against them, as long as there is evidence that shows discrimination was probable, then the plaintiff will win the suit.
The real question in civil cases, is about damages. Often times, the damages amount to whatever promotion the person was disqualified from getting, based on the discrimination involved. The damages would be whatever added amount of money they would have otherwise gotten had they been awarded the deserved promotion. Furthermore, there are punitive damages that the court will sometimes order, if the case is strong enough to merit them. These are usually only awarded as a means of making big news, and teaching other companies who participate in certain behaviors a lesson- that they, too, can be sued for a few bucks, and end up paying thousands, or millions.
People can prove their side by any number of means. Let's say we are talking about a potential employee situation for the position of office manager, at one of those small shipping stores, like Fed Ex or UPS, or someplace like that. If there are four people all waiting in the waiting room, one 19 year old white male, with no managerial experience, one 35 year old hispanic female, who has 12 years of management under her belt, one 27 year old black male who lacks somewhat in professional managerial experience, but has a degree (which the hispanic lady does not have) in business management, and a 38 year old cross dresser who has both a degree, and over five years of managerial experience.
The 19 year old white boy gets the job.
All of the employees in the office, the applicants all noticed, were also white. When they come into the store, individually, later, to mail a package, they see the inexperienced white kid, managing the office.
They call the equal opportunity anti discrimination hotline, or whatever it is, and report it.
The discrimination hotline can then launch a sting, if they feel that the reports are adequate enough.
Even if they do not launch a sting, it only takes ONE person to go see a good Tort Law attorney, to initiate a lawsuit, which would be advertised as a class action, or something like that, so that the attorney can do one lawsuit, and represent all of the damaged applicants. This doesn't generally get the applicants much of a settlement, and the majority of the money will go to the attorney anyways, but as court judgments are public records and legally binding, then it will be a well known issue for the company, who will then be forced to change their ways.
They can also subpoena all the current and even recently former employees for depositions, to make the necessary discoveries for the case to succeed.
So anyways, that is basically how it works, in a very broad and general sense. I am sure that an actual lawyer could explain it better, and I apologize if my explanation is wrong in any way. I have but a limited degree, an AS in paralegal, so I can only tell you how it works, generally, as a result. I do hope it was helpful. =)
