Takeaway: A claim of pretext essentially is a claim that the company is lying about an action taken against an employee. Here are three things to remember when defending against a claim of pretext:

1) Pretext involves more than simple mistakes in business judgment or faulty reasoning; it must include a lie, a purposeful misstatement or some other bad faith behavior on the part of the employer. Train employees—especially supervisors and managers—to understand that honesty really is the best policy.

2) The court will not put itself in the position of a super-HR department and try to second-guess a company's business rationale. Therefore, a plaintiff's argument that pretext exists simply because the individual disagrees with the company's action is unlikely to succeed.

3) Evidentiary support is critical. Full documentation or testimony that supports the proffered legitimate business reason will support the company's position that its action was unrelated to the plaintiff's protected characteristic.

One of the elements that an individual must show in order to succeed on a claim of discrimination is that an employer's reason for a particular adverse action is simply a pretext for discrimination. That is, the explanation given by an employer for its action is simply to cloak the real reason for the action—and the real reason is discrimination.

Recently, one federal district court dismissed an individual's claim of age discrimination for failure to show pretext. In that case, the...

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