Missouri Code of State Regulations › Title 8 - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS › Division 60 - Missouri Commission on Human Rights › Chapter 2 - Procedural Regulations › Section 8 CSR 60-2.025 - Complaint, Investigation, and Conciliation Processes

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 14, July 15, 2024
PURPOSE: This proposed amendment is to modernize this
				  rule by allowing the commission to communicate with parties by digital
				  transmission or fax.
(1) Who
				May File. Any person claiming to be aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory
				practice may personally or by agent file with the commission a written and
				verified complaint of the practice. A person filing a complaint as the agent of
				a person claiming to be aggrieved, must file with the complaint a statement
				signed by the person claiming to be aggrieved authorizing the agent to file the
				complaint. Assistance in preparing and filing complaints shall be available to
				any complainant at any office of the commission. The attorney general also may
				file a complaint.
(2) Complaint
				Form. Every complaint shall be in writing, signed, and verified by being sworn
				to before a notary public, or other person duly authorized by law to administer
				oaths and take acknowledgements, or by being supported by an affirmation or
				declaration in writing under penalty of perjury. A facsimile or electronic
				signature shall have the same effect as an original signature. "Electronic
				signature" means any digital symbol, sound, or process attached to or logically
				associated with a digital record and executed or adopted by a person with the
				intent to sign the record. The commission will accept an array of digital
				objects to serve as an electronic signature. These objects can range from
				keyboarded characters (for example, /s/ Jane Doe"), a graphical image of a
				handwritten signature, or an authenticated process that creates an electronic
				signature. An electronic signature is considered attached to or logically
				associated with a digital record if the electronic signature is linked to the
				record during transmission and storage. The complaint shall state facts
				supporting the allegations of unlawful discriminatory practice and the person
				against whom the complaint is filed. The complaint shall be upon forms
				furnished by the commission or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
				or other federal agencies which have work-sharing or deferral agreements with
				the commission, or a local commission which has been certified as substantially
				equivalent by the commission.
(3)
				Time of Filing. Any complaint filed under Chapter 213, RSMo shall be filed
				within one hundred eighty (180) days of the alleged unlawful discriminatory
				practice or its reasonable discovery.
(4) Place and Manner of Filing. A complaint
				shall be deemed filed on the date actually received by the commission, a
				commissioner or a member of the commission's staff when filed in person and on
				the date postmarked when filed by mail, or in the case of a complaint
				originally filed with the United States EEOC or other federal agencies, which
				have worksharing or deferral agreements with the commission or a local
				commission which has been certified as substantially equivalent by the
				commission upon the date it is actually received by that commission. If the
				alleged unlawful practice is of a continuing nature, the last date of this
				practice shall be deemed to be the last date on which the practice continued,
				or the date of the filing of the complaint, whichever is earlier. Copies of all
				complaints filed with a local commission which has been certified as
				substantially equivalent by the commission are to be forwarded to the
				commission within seven (7) days of the filing of the complaint with the local
				commission. If a local commission has jurisdiction to hear a complaint filed
				with the commission, a complaint shall be deemed to have been filed with the
				local commission on the date on which the complaint was filed with the
				commission. Within seven (7) days of the receipt of a complaint which a local
				commission has jurisdiction to hear, the commission shall forward a copy of the
				complaint to the local commission.
(5) Amendment of the Complaint During
				Investigation. The executive director, his/her designee or the complainant
				shall have the power, reasonably and fairly to amend the complaint. The
				original complaint and all amendments shall be treated together as a single
				complaint. A complaint may be amended in any way provided the amended complaint
				is filed within the time permitted under 8 CSR 60-2.025(3) for the filing of an
				original complaint. After expiration of the time for filing an original
				complaint, amendment of a complaint shall also be permitted to cure technical
				defects or omissions and to clarify and amplify allegations made in the
				complaint. Amendments alleging additional acts which constitute unlawful
				discriminatory practices related to or growing out of the subject matter of the
				original complaint shall relate back to the date the complaint was first
				received. These amendments may join a person who was not named as a respondent
				in the original complaint as an additional or substitute respondent. Notice of
				this joinder shall be served upon the additional or substitute respondent
				within thirty (30) days after the commission's receipt of a complaint amended
				in this manner. The commission's notice also shall state the reason the person
				has been joined as a party.
(6) Any
				time prior to issuance of a notice of public hearing, a complaint may be
				withdrawn upon written request and with the written consent of the executive
				director.
(7) Dismissal of
				Complaint.
(A) If the executive director or
				his/her designee shall determine, either upon the face of the complaint or
				after investigation, that the complaint shall be dismissed due to lack of
				probable cause the same shall be dismissed.
(B) A complaint may be administratively
				closed by the executive director or his/her designee at any stage prior to
				setting the case for public hearing-
1. For
				failure of the complainant to cooperate with the commission;
2. Upon the commission's inability to locate
				the complainant;
3. For lack of
				jurisdiction;
4. In the absence of
				any remedy available to the complainant;
5. When the complainant files a suit in
				federal court on the same issues against the respondent named in the commission
				complaint;
6. When the commission
				has not completed its administrative processing within one hundred eighty (180)
				days from the filing of the complaint and the person aggrieved requests in
				writing a notice of the right to bring a civil action in state court, the
				executive director or his/her designee will administratively close the
				complaint and issue the notice; or
7. In any other circumstance where the
				executive director deems administrative closure to be
				appropriate.
(C) The
				parties shall be notified by mail, digital transmission, facsimile, or personal
				service of the commission's dismissal or administrative closure and of
				complainant's right of appeal.
(D)
				The executive director or his/her designee may vacate a dismissal or
				administrative closure of a complaint within one hundred eighty (180) days of
				the date of the original letter of notification when the dismissal or
				administrative closure was inappropriate due to an administrative
				error.
(E) Any person aggrieved by
				dismissal of a complaint may obtain judicial review by filing a petition in the
				circuit court of the county of proper venue in the manner provided by section
				536.150,
				RSMo.