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25 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 257 (2001-2002)
The ABCs of Title VII Class and Age Discrimination Collective Actions

handle is hein.journals/amjtrad25 and id is 267 raw text is: The ABCs of Title VII Class and Age Discrimination Collective Actions Candis A. McGowant Abstract This Article looks at the rights of employees under both Title VII and the ADEA and focuses on employer discrimination lawsuits under these federal laws. Attorney Candis McGowan employs an effective analysis and provides practical tools necessary to pursue class and collective employment discrimination actions. I. Introduction The initial passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created an important tool for plaintiffs challenging discriminatory employment practices and procedures: the class action.' In 1977, the class action began its decline into a fourteen-year coma.2 However, the class action device in employment discrimination lawsuits against employers has been revived.' Since the peak of employment discrimination class actions twenty-five years ago,4 a small scale resurgence of employment discrimi- nation class actions is occurring.5 The revival of the class action device in employment discrimination lawsuits is attributed to the passage of the t B.S. (1983), Auburn University; J.D. (1986), Cumberland School ofLaw, Samford University. The author is a partner with the Birmingham, Alabama law firn of Gardner, Middlebrooks, Fleming, Gibbons & Kittrell, P.C. This Article was adapted from the author's presentation at the 2001 UFCW Attorneys' Conference in Carlsbad, California. The author would like to thank Coker B. Cleveland for his research and writing assistance with this Article. ' Scotty Shively, Resurgence ofthe Class Action Lawsuit in Employment Discrimi- nation Cases: New Obstacles Presented by the 1991 Amendments to the Civil Rights Act, 23 U. ARK. LITTLE ROCK L. REV. 925, 925 (2001). 2 Id. at 926. 3Id. 4Julie Davies, Federal Civil Rights Practice in the 1990's: The Dichotomy Between Reality and Theory, 48 HASTINGS L.J. 197, 238 n.235 (1997). 'Id. In 1999, plaintiffs filed seventy-four class action employment discrimination cases. Shively, supra note 1, at 926.