From Our Readers
| Publication year | 1982 |
| Pages | 3020 |
1982, December, Pg. 3020. From our Readers
I was very surprised and pleased to see my Colorado Lawyer for August 1982. I think the larger edition will serve the legal community well, both in terms of readability and space for more material. The only thing I didn't like about the August issue was the poor quality of the front and back covers, but I'm sure this will be improved.
Very Truly Yours,
Jerry C. M. Orten
Wagner & Waller, P.C.
I read with interest the Law Office Management column entitled "Legal Employment Interviews" in the October 1982 issue of The Colorado Lawyer. I highly recommend this article to anyone who may have passed it by, particularly the section on Employment Application Form Questions which may be deemed discriminatory. I, for one, did not realize that questions about age, sex, height, weight, willingness to work overtime, salary desired and name of person to contact in case of emergency could violate federal law.
It seems, however, that the author omitted a few additional questions having discriminatory potential, for example:
Name --- could indicate the applicant's race, national origin, religion or marital status (if hyphenated).
Ability to type --- tends to identify female applicants.
Willingness to work --- may discriminate against those who do not subscribe to the Protestant work ethic.
Fugitive from justice --- probably unlawful, because according to the author, minorities are convicted more frequently and therefore are more likely to become fugitives.
Living or dead --- discriminates against the dead, many of whom are minorities.
Fluency in English --- discriminates against non-English-speaking people, which means that applicants should probably not be asked to read or complete an application at all.
To be perfectly legal, therefore, each applicant should be assigned a number (randomly, of course, lest we discover that certain groups prefer certain numbers), with successful applicants selected by lottery.
Many thanks to Mr. Hrebik for his enlightening article.
Sincerely,
David A. Bottger, Denver
Now that the Supreme Court has designated West's Colorado Reporter as the official reporter and publishes a weekly advance sheet of full reported opinions from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, I...
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