It is easy to understand what intentional discrimination involves. If you hire a male instead of a female because you have a preference for male employees, or, if you hire a white employee instead of an African-American employee because you have a bias against African-Americans, you are guilty of a sexual or racial discrimination. It is possible, however, for an employee to prove discrimination "by showing the existence of an employment practice which, although neutral on its face, has the effect of disproportionately affecting a persons in a legally protected group". This is called unintentional discrimination and can be established by the employee proving a pattern or practice that results in a discriminatory environment. If, for example, you have a predominantly white work force and primarily hire on the basis of recommendations you receive from current employees, your work force will most likely remain predominantly white. You may be deemed to be guilty of unintentional racial discrimination.

To avoid claims of "unintentional" discrimination, you should generally observe the following guidelines:

• Advertise for new employees.

• Post notices about promotion opportunities.

• Make sure that all job requirements are actually job-related.

• Establish objective qualifications for specific jobs.

• If minorities are rarely ever hired or promoted, carefully review all employment practices to see what may be causing this "unintentional" effect.

• If women are never able to break through the "glass ceiling" of upper management, determine if there is some "unintentional" - yet perhaps unlawful - reason for this.

• Consider whether pre-employment tests are effectively eliminating a disproportionate number of minority applicants.

• If it takes minorities or females twice as long to be promoted as white males, find out why.

• If the age of your workforce is quite young (despite a fair number of employment applications from employees 40 years old and older), ask what gives.

Remember: We cannot win a discrimination case by telling a judge or jury, "My client didn't mean to do it".