Filing a Complaint with OCR

• 1). Contact the United States Office of Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is the federal agency that enforces most age discrimination complaints. You may have to work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or some other federal agency, but most likely, you will work with OCR. If, by chance, you need to work with another agency, OCR will direct you to the correct agency.
  
  
• 2). Draft your complaint. You have two choices when drafting a complaint. First, you can prepare your own complaint and make sure it has all of the information required by OCR. Alternatively, you can ask OCR for a standard complaint form and they will send you the form to fill out. The best option is to use OCR's standard form. Be sure to fill all of the information out and provide accurate responses. If you don't, your complaint could be dismissed. You will have to show that your employer or potential employer took some adverse action against you, such as denying you a job, denying you a promotion, demoting you or firing you, and that the employer's reason, or part of the reason, for doing so was because of your age.
  
  
• 3). File your Complaint. Keep in mind that you must file a complaint within 180 days of the date on which you claim you experienced discrimination. You will file the complaint according to OCR requirements, so contact OCR if you have any questions. OCR allows you to file a complaint in one of several different ways, including filling out an online form, sending an email, sending a letter, or by facsimile. You should not have to pay a filing fee.
  
  
• 4). Follow up with OCR. After you file your complaint, OCR should assign an agent to your case. The agent, in theory, should review your complaint and help you decide on a plan of action. However, agents are human beings who can be lazy, distracted or just plain incompetent. Make it your personal responsibility to routinely follow up with the agent assigned to your case to make sure your case moves forward.