Do Judges Give Second City Workers Second-Class Treatment?

Workers in Chicago and neighboring areas who sue their employers alleging bias have a nearly 64 percent chance of seeing at least some of their federal discrimination claims survive the early stages of litigation. That’s a bit better than plaintiffs do on average in all other civil lawsuits.

However, once the sides have exchanged evidence and readied a case for trial in the U.S. District for the Northern District of Illinois, it’s employers who are in the driver’s seat. At that later stage of litigation—when many employers, and some workers, seek rulings in their favor through a motion for summary ...