- Both Plaintiffs and Defendants use statistics
- Need a large enough sample size
- Essential for some kinds of cases
- Class actions
- "Pattern and Practice" cases (brought by the gov't)--like class actions (used to be more important than they are today)
- Really important for HR purposes--otherwise how does HR find out if discrimination is happening in their company?
- But numbers can be manipulated by managers, etc.--IMPORTANT FOR HR to structure reports to avoid having dept hide details from them
- In litigation
- Basis of discovery disputes
- Fights about whether statistics are good enough to be admissible--court as a gatekeeper
- Experts also important--must have them on the one hand to explain the stats, on the other hand experts know nothing about Title VII or your widgets--can create completely useless stats b/c they do not understand what question to ask!
- General Advice: in assessing statistics, you must understand them yourself, cannot simply rely on "experts," especially when deciding what statistical analysis to conduct
Class notes and materials by a law student for law students.
Employment Discrimination: Statistics Generally
Statistics Use in Employment Discrimination Generally