The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that public employees can file bias claims against governmental agencies without going through administrative complaint procedures. Government agencies favor civil service procedures to lawsuits for public employees because in lawsuits substantial damages are often rewarded while in civil procedures the remedy is usually limited to back pay and reinstatement. Additional criticism of the ruling is the complaint that internal procedures are often a useful way of resolving disputes and now this method will be used less frequently. The court feels that public employees will only choose to purse a lawsuit for the most serious of claims.
See "Court Eases Rules on Public-Employee Suits", Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2003