The number of civil rights-related complaints in U.S. district courts has exploded since 1990, largely due to an increase in employment cases between private parties, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics said Jan. 16.
Employment cases represented approximately 65 percent of the increase in civil rights-related complaints from 1990 to 1998, BJS said. Complaints in the employment arena nearly tripled from 8,413 in 1990 to 23,735 in 1998, BJS said, with suits between private parties representing about 90 percent of the employment-related caseload. Overall, civil rights complaints jumped from 18,793 in 1990 to 42,354 in 1998.
