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Outing Outcomes: An Empirical Study Of Confidential Employment Discrimination Settlements, Minna J. Kotkin

Washington and Lee Law Review

Recent empirical studies on outcomes in employment discrimination litigation all reach the same conclusion: Plaintifs have little chance of success. But these studies rely on summary judgment decisions and trial verdicts, gleaned from reported opinions, electronic docket entries, and data collected by the Administrative Office of the Courts, and they acknowledge that this is just "the tip of the iceberg." Until now, settlement outcomes, which account for 70% of case resolutions, have been rendered invisible because of confidential settlement agreements. Along with the "vanishing trial" syndrome, secret settlements have created an information vacuum, skewing the public policy discourse about employment …