Filing a Discrimination Charge (EEOC)

The administrative step that must come before almost any federal employment-discrimination lawsuit - a charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state agency within a short statutory window, followed by a right-to-sue letter that starts the next clock.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of Discrimination law firms.

What it means

Federal law prohibits an employer above a size threshold from discriminating in hiring, pay, promotion, discipline or discharge because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, age, disability or genetic information. But a person who believes it has happened cannot go straight to court. The statutes require a charge to be filed first with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or with a state or local fair-employment agency that shares jurisdiction, within a period set by statute that runs from the discriminatory act - and that period is short, shorter than almost any other civil deadline, and is not extended because the person was negotiating, on leave, or using an internal complaint process.

Filing starts an administrative process rather than a lawsuit. The agency notifies the employer, may investigate, may attempt mediation, and eventually either finds reasonable cause, dismisses the charge, or simply runs out of time. At the end it issues a notice of right to sue, and the person then has a second short period, again set by statute, to file in court. A charge can be filed by mail, in person or through the agency's online portal without a lawyer, and retaliation for filing one is separately unlawful. Equal-pay claims and some age claims have different routes, and federal employees are on a wholly different and faster track that begins with the agency's own EEO counselor.

The charge defines the case: a lawsuit may only raise claims that were in the charge or that a reasonable investigation of it would have reached, so a charge that names sex discrimination but not retaliation, or one supervisor but not the practice behind them, narrows what can later be sued on. State law often reaches smaller employers, more protected classes and longer deadlines than the federal statutes, and a charge filed with the state agency is usually cross-filed with the EEOC automatically.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

The deadline is the reason to see a lawyer within days of the event rather than after the internal grievance fails, and a lawyer will draft the charge so that it covers every theory and every actor the later lawsuit will need. A person who has already filed alone should bring the charge and the right-to-sue notice to the first meeting, because the second clock is already running from the date on that notice, and it is the one most often missed.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find Discrimination law firms in your state

Choose your state to see Discrimination law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z. A state marked “Civil & Human Rights” has no Discrimination listing yet and opens the broader page.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
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  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
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  +2 other cities

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  +12 other cities

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• Utah (Salt Lake City)
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  +3 other cities

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• Washington (Seattle)
  +2 other cities

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• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Entries on the same subject:

• Disparate ImpactDiscrimination without a discriminatory intent - a neutral rule, test or practice that falls much harder on a protected group and cannot be justified by business necessity - and the statutes under which that theory is and is not available.
• Housing Discrimination (Fair Housing Act)The federal law making it unlawful to refuse housing, or set different terms, because of who someone is.
• Reasonable AccommodationA change to a job, workplace or housing rule that lets a person with a disability participate equally - required unless it imposes undue hardship.
• Retaliation for Protected ActivityThe separate legal wrong of punishing a person for complaining about discrimination, reporting a violation, taking protected leave or helping in an investigation - a claim that often succeeds where the underlying complaint would not.

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• ADA Public Accommodations (Title III)The part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that applies to businesses open to the public - shops, restaurants, hotels, clinics, theaters, and in many courts their websites - requiring access, policy changes and communication aids, with the cost limits that shape what can be demanded.
• Excessive ForceThe constitutional limit on how much force police may use in a stop, an arrest or a search - judged by what a reasonable officer would have done in the moment, and the reason body-camera footage decides more of these cases than testimony does.
• False Arrest and Malicious ProsecutionThe claims available to a person detained without probable cause or prosecuted without it - the state torts, their constitutional counterparts, and the favorable-termination rule that decides when a malicious-prosecution claim can be brought at all.
• Prisoners' Rights and the Prison Litigation Reform ActThe constitutional protections that survive incarceration - against cruel and unusual conditions, deliberate indifference to medical needs, and punishment without process - and the federal statute that makes a prisoner exhaust the prison's own grievance system before any of them can be enforced in court.
• Religious Freedom (RFRA and RLUIPA)The federal statutes that require government to justify any substantial burden on religious exercise by a compelling interest pursued in the least restrictive way - stronger than the constitutional rule, and the basis of most modern religious-liberty claims by prisoners, congregations and employers.
• Section 1983 Civil Rights ClaimThe federal statute allowing someone to sue a state or local official personally for violating their constitutional rights.

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