single filing rule
single-filing rule. Civil-rights law. The principle that an administrative charge filed by one plaintiff in a civil-rights suit (esp. a Title VII suit) will satisfy the administrative-filing requirements for all coplaintiffs who are making claims for the same act of discrimination. • But this rule will not usu. protect a coplaintiff’s claims if the coplaintiff also filed an administrative charge, against the same employer, in which different discriminatory acts were complained of, because the administrative agency (usu. the EEOC) and the employer are entitled to rely on the allegations someone makes in an administrative charge. [Cases: Civil Rights 1517. C.J.S. Civil Rights § 153.]
