BEV BUTULA: Garland’s Digest on Employment Discrimination Law

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The Garland’s Digest is a free web-based index of “over 4,500 summaries of federal appellate court decisions from September 1996 to May 2009 and a searchable index of over 4,500 court decisions from September 1996 to date.” Topics include age discrimination, the Equal Pay Act, FMLA, sex discrimination, religious discrimination, and the ADA. The search tool is very easy to use allowing for keyword queries, date refinement, and other options.

The search results provide a brief summary of the case, the primary issues addressed, citation information, and a link to the case. The digest clearly notes that the case needs to be checked to ensure that it is still current law. As an example, I ran a search for “Waffle House.” My first hit was the EEOC v. Waffle House. The summary outlines the facts of the case, what the Appellate court decided and what the Supreme Court held.

Another feature is the online treatise. This treatise offers an alphabetical index to various issues relevant to employment discrimination law. For example, one topic discussed is the McDonnell-Douglas burden shifting analysis. The link from the index provides the researcher with various issues and cases to review. There is also an online table of contents to review topics in a broader sense.

The site also provides a newsletter for information on recent cases.