As Florida employment lawyers, we know that the great majority of employment discrimination cases involve claims of intentional discrimination asserted by individual workers. Although large in number, these cases do not usually attract much publicity or attention. They do not involve large classes of employees and they do not challenge affirmative action plans. They are, instead, cases where an individual plaintiff, claims that an adverse personnel decision was based on a prohibited characteristic, of which race, sex, ethnicity or others is the paradigm.

The most heavily litigated issue by Florida employment lawyers is the definition of intentional discrimination, an issue worked out mainly through allocation of the burden of proof. The opinions on burden of proof have succeeded in formulating a consistent set of doctrinal rules. They have been less successful in achieving the broader goals of assuring the consistent resolution of employment discrimination claims, controlling the allocation of issues between judge and jury, and expediting the overall process of settlement and litigation. The tension between the actual effects of doctrinal rules and what they were designed to accomplish, here as elsewhere in the law, results in continuing litigation and continuing attempts to improve upon existing law by employment attorneys.

Statutory Definitions of Discrimination are the subject of much dispute among Florida employment lawyers. This is most attributed to the fact that the law does not contain any definition of intentional discrimination as a technical term of art. Neither do any of the other statutes modeled on Title VII. In this respect, employment attorneys rely on the aspects of the statutory law of employment discrimination that follows constitutional law. Leaving the exact nature of what is prohibited without any precise definition. In fact, the phrase "intentional discrimination" is at least partly redundant. All discrimination is intentional in some sense because it requires noticing or acting on some kind of distinction.

As Florida employment lawyers, we do feel that you should know that practices, including any form of discrimination or segregation affecting an individual's employment "because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” is both illegal and actionable.