Helping Employers Facing State Claims of Employment Discrimination

A couple months back, Ohio changed its laws regarding employment discrimination. The law went into effect on April 15, 2021 and represents the culmination of 25 years of legislative effort to curb overreaching courts and judicial lawmaking.

Before an employee can file a lawsuit for employment discrimination, the employee must first file a charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. This must occur within 2 years of the discriminatory action. Then, the OCRC must issue a Notice of Right to Sue before a court action can be filed. This is generally similar to the federal requirements.

There is now a two year statute of limitations, rather than the previous six year one.

Damages are now statutorily capped by Ohio’s Tort Reform Act, limited potential financial exposure. Liability for supervisors is limited to instances where the supervisor acted outside the scope of employment. Employers who take reasonable care to prevent/correct harassment now have a codified affirmative defense (sometimes referred to as the Faragher/Ellerth defense).

This new law dramatically changes the landscape for employers and should be clearly understood. To read more about this, please check out the Ohio Legislative Service Commission’s Final Analysis.