With just eight weeks left on the federal government’s 2012 fiscal calendar, employers are bracing for rapid-fire litigation from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Gerald Maatman Jr. , co-chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s complex discrimination litigation group, says the agency has entered the annual “red zone”—a period when its lawsuits surge.

“It’s a countdown to the EEOC’s end of the year,” says Maatman.

In fiscal year 2011, the agency filed 175 of its 261 merits lawsuits on behalf of claimants (or 67 percent) when it was in the red zone, according to Maatman. On September 30 alone—the very last day of the fiscal year—the EEOC issued discrimination complaints against 18 companies, including Safeway Inc. and The Finish Line Inc.

Does the EEOC expect to see the same level of red zone activity this year?

The agency won’t post a preliminary tabulation of this year’s filings until sometime in October, but Seyfarth’s lawyers have been keeping an informal count based on EEOC press releases. Compared to this time last year, Maatman says filings appear to be on course with the 2011 numbers.

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