United States Supreme Court and Pennsylvania Superior Court Continue to Limit Access to the Courts

In a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court, with a vote of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court struck another blow to consumers and working people by stripping a civil rights law of much of its teeth. In a decison written by the newest Justice, Samuel Alito, who hails from our own Federal Third Circuit, the Court created a tortured reading on the law and tossed out a long standing precedent in favor of an Alabama employer that had underpaid a female employee for years. This is yet another example of the highest Courts assault on the disadvantaged in favor of protecting the powerful.
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\nA Supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber sued her employer for paying her less than its male supervisors. Late in her career she filed a claim of discrimination and the jury found that her employer had violated her rights.
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\nBut Goodyear appealed and argued that she had filed too late. The Supreme Court agreed, saying that she only had 180 days to file such a claim. Since the pay difference had been going on for years, they reasoned, the female employee had missed her chance by not filing within 180 days of the first time there was a pay difference.
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\nWhat the Court failed to consider, much to the female supervisor's detriment, was that the reality of the workplace is that employees generally do not know enough about what their co-workers earn of how pay decisions are made in order to know if they need to file a complaint. Like most companies, Goodyear kept salaries confidential.
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\nNow, with the Supreme Court's ruling, it will be next to impossible to bring a claim for wage discrimination.
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\nThe Pennsylvania Appellate Courts are also doing their part to unfairly limit persons injured through the fault of another by setting up road blocks where ever they can. In a decision rendered by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in the last several months (June 2007), the Court held that a claim for sexual abuse committed by a priest was barred by the Statute of Limitations because the sexually abused individual did not bring the claim within two years of the occurence during his youth. The Court apparently did not find it convincing that the actions of the church hierarchy did not amount to such a level to cause the youth to not pursue his action.
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\nThe lesson of these two important cases. As soon as you believe that you have been wronged by someone or some company, you should immediately seek the advice of an attorney experienced in such matters, before it's too late to bring a claim. Then wait to hear from the defendant that you should be punished for running to the court house steps. But they can't have it both ways!

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