Co-Worker Evidence in Court

This symposium explores ways to empower workers. Many employment laws rely on workers filing private rights of action to enforce the underlying substantive law. Unfortunately, when workers file these claims in court, courts often do not allow them to rely on evidence from their co-workers. While courts regularly allow employers to submit co-worker evidence of a plaintiff’s poor performance or lack of qualifications, they often diminish or exclude a plaintiff’s co-worker evidence that the plaintiff performed well or possessed desired qualifications.

This Article identifies and explores this evidentiary inequality. It argues that efforts to empower workers must include the power to support one another in litigation and that courts should be careful about rejecting plaintiffs’ co-worker evidence, while relying on similar evidence offered by employers.