EEOC-Initiated Litigation - 2022 Edition

© 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC-Initiated Litigation: 2022 Edition | 5 3. Most Active District Offices And Year-End Spike In addition to tracking the subject matter of filings, it is useful to track which of the EEOC’s 15 district offices are most actively filing new cases. Some Districts tend to be more active than others, and some focus on different EEOC priorities. Indeed, the EEOC’s district offices have been tasked with creating more regional strategic priorities, but those are not shared with the public the same as national priorities have been historically. Monitoring which district offices are most active can therefore reveal which areas of the country are most heavily targeted and possibly offer clues as to which priorities the EEOC is focusing on for the coming year. The chart on the facing page shows the number of filings by EEOC district office. The most noticeable trend of FY 2021 is the dip in some key regions compared to past years. The New York district office, for example, fell from 12 filings in FY 2020 to 6 filings in FY 2021. The California district offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, which amounted to 16 new filings last year combined, declined in FY 2021, coming in at a combined total of 13 new filings, including San Francisco’s fall from 10 to 6. Leading the pack in new filings were the Philadelphia and Dallas district offices, with 14 and 11 filings, respectively. Philadelphia’s filings shot up from eight filings last year, and Dallas up from just four filings in FY 2020. The Indianapolis office, which was one of the leaders in new filings last year, posted fairly low numbers in FY 2021. The Chicago district office, historically at the head of the pack, is back up to nine filings this year from last year’s three. As is usually the case, the EEOC ended its fiscal year with some increased activity, filing 59 lawsuits during September alone. This is nearly double the amount of lawsuits filed in September FY 2020, during which time only 33 lawsuits were filed. In sum, the EEOC filed 114 total cases in FY 2021, which includes 111 merits lawsuits and 3 subpoena and enforcement actions. This total number of filings is more than last year’s total of 101 lawsuits, but still less than two years prior.