U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Burden of Proof in Age Discrimination Cases
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The United States Supreme Court ruled today that a plaintiff bringing a disparate treatment claim under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the “but-for” cause of the challenged adverse employment action. The burden of persuasion does not shift to the employer to show that it would have taken the action regardless of age, even when a plaintiff has produced some evidence that age was one motivating factor in that decision. The case is Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. (June 18, 2009).
I will offer some analysis of the Gross decision in a future post. Stay tuned.
The one who alleges a fact must prove the same. A mere preponderance of evidence may be easy to produce or prove especially when conduct of the occurrence of the complained act really transpired.