Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

Re: Employer Lied in Discrimination Suit Answer

First, if your employer has more then 15 employees, for purposes of the EEOC, or 4 employees for the NY State Div. of Human Rights,

and you want to bring an action in Federal Court for disability discrimination under 42 USC 2000e

or NY Exec law 296, you must first seek permission from the State Human Rights Division and EEOC. If your request is denied or granted, you can then proceed in court once you have exhausted your administrative remedies.

I can't tell what type of proceeding you are talikng about but it sounds like a pro se Court action? This is a very complex area of law and you can mess up by jumping the gun.

You have 180 days to file with either the EEOC or the local state agency under federal law and I believe more then that under 296.

With respect to the testimony at the unemployment hearing, that determination may have collateral estoppel effect against your employer if the parties to the proceeding, and the issues were the same as those in

your present case, and both sides had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issues.

A simple denial in an answer to a complaint is standard practice, not a lie; the Plaintiff has the burden of proof. Your question is not clear but if you would clarify these points, I will try to answer.

Re: Employer Lied in Discrimination Suit Answer

One further point. If you have complied with NY Executive Law 297 and filed an administrative proceeeding against your employer it is exclusive until it is either decided or, if you wish to go to state court, you may ask that the

administrative proceeding be annulled or dismissed. See Exec Law 297 and 298.

297(9) states :9. Any person claiming to be aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory practice shall have a cause of action in any court of appropriate jurisdiction for damages, including, in cases of housing discrimination only, punitive damages, and such other remedies as may be appropriate, including any civil fines and penalties provided in subdivision four of this section, unless such person had filed a complaint hereunder or with any local commission on human rights, or with the superintendent pursuant to the provisions of section two hundred ninety-six-a of this chapter, provided that, where the division has dismissed such complaint on the grounds of administrative convenience, on the grounds of untimeliness, or on the grounds that the election of remedies is annulled, such person shall maintain all rights to bring suit as if no complaint had been filed with the division.

At any time prior to a hearing before a hearing examiner, a person who has a complaint pending at the division may request that the division dismiss the complaint and annul his or her election of remedies so that the human rights law claim may be pursued in court, and the division may, upon such request, dismiss the complaint on the grounds that such person`s election of an administrative remedy is annulled