For nearly six months, public hearings at the CHRO were on hold because Governor Malloy did not reappoint the human rights referees.  As a result, cases that had been pending at the CHRO went nowhere — fast.

However, that is changing.  Two new human rights referees were appointed this month and a third will be on the way shortly.  The new referees are:

• Alvin Wilson, who will serve as Chief Human Rights Referee.  Most recently, Wilson served as Director of Operations under Governor Malloy and is a 1993 UConn Law School graduate. His LinkedIn profile is available here.
• Ellen Bromley.  Bromley recently worked for the law firm of Benjamin & Gold. Prior to that, she worked for the City of Stamford as Social Services Coordinator.  She is a 1981 Georgetown Law School graduate.

Although the CHRO does not have any public hearings yet listed on the website, these new referees have recently been sending out notices to start the process up again.

(Perhaps the CHRO could update their website to indicate who these new referees are and make a formal announcement to the public about the resumption of these public hearings?)

Thus, employers will cases that have been awaiting a public hearing (particularly those prior to July 1, 2011) should expect to see some action shortly.

For everyone else, this means that the logjam at the CHRO will soon be coming to end.  And since there is the possibility that cases can now skip investigations and go directly to public hearing under the new procedural rules in effect last year, that possibility is now more real than ever.