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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.

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