Lexology (10/05/15) James F. Shea; Anna Matsuo

The Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities implemented major changes to its procedures for processing discrimination complaints on Oct. 1. Employers will now have the opportunity to engage in pre-answer conciliation, which tracks existing practice at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In addition, the merit assessment review has been recast as a case assessment review, shortening the timeframe from 90 days to 60 days from the date of the employer’s answer. Furthermore, parties who hold a pre-answer conciliation conference will not be obligated to engage in mediation before a commission investigation, though they can do so if they choose, and the CHRO representative who conducts the mediation can no longer be assigned to investigate the complaint.