Through Mitti Hicks
October 21, 2025
The EEOC reportedly plans to notify plaintiffs who have filed complaints about “miscellaneous impact liability” in late October that they will have to file suit themselves if they want to continue pursuing their claims.
Lawyers for Cohen Milstein are sounding the alarm as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency charged with enforcing federal employment discrimination laws, plans to drop specific discrimination claims.
In a memo first obtained by The Associated Press, the EEOC said the agency will handle all complaints about ‘uneven impact liability’, a legal concept that advocates a policy or hiring practice may still be discriminatory, even if it appears fair on its face, if it creates an unnecessary barrier that makes it more difficult for certain groups of people to succeed. The EEOC plans to notify claimants in late October that they will have to file their own lawsuit if they want to continue pursuing their claims.
According to Joseph M. Sellers and Christine E. Webber, attorneys and partners at Cohen Milstein, the “disparate impact liability” rule has eliminating arbitrary hurdles for applicants, creating a more level playing field for everyone.
What claimants need to know
The EEOC has banned employment practices with disparate impact since at least 1971. Sellers and Webber said that the EEOC, as it plans to drop claims under disparate impact liability, is tricking those who filed charges into thinking “that it [the EEOC] felt that their claims had no merit whatsoever.”
According to the two lawyers, this means that workers need to take action because private sector lawyers can still enforce these civil rights laws.
“Employees who receive notices of right to sue should know that the EEOC’s refusal to investigate their claims does not necessarily mean that their claims have no merit or that there is no path forward,” Sellers and Webber said. “To the contrary, the courts are still enforcing the law, including the disparate impact rule.”
Unfortunately, this means that plaintiffs only have 90 days to file their own lawsuits or their claims will be forever barred. Both Sellers and Webber encourage people to consult with an attorney as soon as possible, especially attorneys with experience in a variety of impact claims.
“The EEOC may be abandoning decades of precedent, but the doors to courthouses remain open for workers with diverse impact claims,” the attorneys added.
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