Courts in the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit may no longer use “convincing mosaic” as a legal test or standard to determine whether there is sufficient evidence in an employment discrimination test. Ortiz v. Werner Enters., Inc., No. 15-2574, 2016 WL 4411434, at *3-4 (7th Cir. Aug. 19, 2016). Courts are also precluded from separating “direct” and “indirect” evidence when analyzing summary judgment motions. Ortiz, 2016 WL 4411434, at *5. In Ortiz v. Werner Enterprises, Inc., a Mexican freight broker, Henry Ortiz, was fired after seven years of employment for falsifying business records. Id. at *1. Ortiz sued Werner Enterprises under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/1-101 to 5/10-104, claiming that he was fired because of his Mexican ethnicity and that he was subjected to a hostile work environment under state law.

Read Entire Article Here

Julie Bruch has written several items for The Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel Quarterly (IDC Quarterly). The excerpt above is from the original publication. Follow the link above to read the entire article.