Consider: Employee/volunteer/Intern… with a disability is sexually harassing his or her coworkers. The disability is such that the employee/volunteer is unlikely to stop. The hiring authority terminates the employee/volunteer and the employee/volunteer sues the hiring authority for disability discrimination. This sounds very much like what could’ve been the case with the former Mayor of San
Title I
What does it mean to exhaust administrative remedies?
By William Goren on
Title I of the ADA requires that before a plaintiff can go to court they must first exhaust administrative remedies first. That means receiving a right to sue letter from the EEOC and filing your claim with the EEOC or an equivalent state agency within the requisite time period. It also means giving the EEOC…
height as a disability: Let’s not overreact
By William Goren on
The ABA Journal is, again, seeking nominations for its list of the 100 best legal blawgs, the “Blawg 100.” The nomination process is simple. Go here and answer a few simple questions touting your favorite blawgs. In addition to this one, there are many good blogs out there. For example, the ones that I use…
ADA can trump collective bargaining agreement
By William Goren on
The terms of a collective bargaining agreement can play a critical role in analyzing the rights of the parties. For example, in a previous blog, the terms of the collective bargaining agreement played a critical role in the court allowing for random drug testing of current employees. That said, when it comes to collective…
A huge victory for ADA plaintiff employment lawyers AND a huge victory for ADA defense lawyers:
By William Goren on
Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. In that decision, the United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling with Justice Kennedy being the swing vote, held that mixed motive is dead with respect to retaliation claims under title VII of the Civil…
Legal narcotics and the ADA
By William Goren on
In a previous blog, we talked about marijuana and the ADA. What about narcotics that are prescribed by a physician subsequent to a surgery? Would it be a reasonable accommodation to allow the plaintiff to return to work while using narcotic medications? It’s a justiciable question given the facts it had before it says…
Federal laws/regulations allowing for discrimination can trump the ADA (even if adopted at the state level)
By William Goren on
The United States Supreme Court and the regulations implementing title I of the ADA allow for a complete defense to discrimination against persons with disabilities when the discrimination is necessary in order to comply with other federal law or regulations. Albertsons v. Kirkingburg 527 U.S. 555, 570, 570 n.16; see also id. at 578 (J.…
Recent EEOC guidances and a recent fact sheet
By William Goren on
It has been a little while since we talked about employment law here. Now, it is time to get back to it. Recently the EEOC issued four guidances on four different disabilities, diabetes, intellectual disability, cancer, and epilepsy. They also issued a fact sheet on the mental health provider’s role in…
Class-action and persons with disabilities R.I.P.?
By William Goren on
Here’s a fact. No two disabilities even the same ones are the same. Accordingly, it makes perfect sense that the ADA requires an individual analysis throughout. Further, under both title I and title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act, in addition to having a disability, the person must be qualified. That is, capable of…
ADA and the Applicable Statute of Limitations
By William Goren on
The whole idea of the statute of limitations is to prevent stale claims. Just about everything has a statute of limitations (the only two exceptions that I can think of our claims arising under USERRA and capital murder claims). The ADA does have statute of limitations to deal with, though it is not stated in…