Jessica wants to file a discrimination claim against her current employer. She consults her lawyer and learns that she cannot directly file a case in court. She needs to first file a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This is called _____.

Exhaustion of administrative remedies requires that a person who is challenging an agency's decision must first go the agency that administers remedies before seeking judicial intervention or filing the case in court.

In the case of Jessica, she must first go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), file a petition, go for hearing and finally use the EEOC internal appeal process. Once the EEOC have exhausted their own procedures, she can then file a complaint in a federal courts. The exhaustion of administrative remedies prevents her from filing the case in court first.

The exhaustion of administrative remedies was created to promote an autonomous administrative state, meaning a agency should be allowed to sort and decide matters without the interference of the justice system.