I know I said that I would not be blogging until after the new year started. However, my wife and daughter are hanging out with lunch and a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond. Since we are Jewish, one could ask why we would be making a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond two days
ADA compliance attorney
Just When Does the Statute of Limitations BEGIN to Run in ADA Cases
By William Goren on
I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. In Atlanta, we got a few inches of snow. So, my daughter was outside playing in the snow and having snowball fights with her friends. She even got in a couple of snowballs thrown at me. The nice thing about it being in Atlanta was that…
ADA and ADA Related Cases at the Supreme Court: Where They Have Been and What Is Next
By William Goren on
Did you know that persons with disabilities are undefeated at the Supreme Court when it comes to title II and title III matters? It’s true.
Let us explore the ADA and ADA related cases that have been before the United States Supreme Court since the ADA went into effect. If I have this figured right,…
Can You Get Compensatory and Punitive Damages in ADA Retaliation Claims
By William Goren on
Your client asked for reasonable accommodations/modifications and was retaliated against for doing so. Let’s assume that the retaliation is fairly obvious. The question becomes when you file a retaliation claim are you going to be able to get compensatory and punitive damages? Might it depend upon the title or law that you are suing under?…
Temporary disabilities and the ADA
By William Goren on
Posted in ADA, Final Federal Regulations, Proposed Federal Regulations, Title I, Title II, Title III
In the first and second editions of my book, understanding the ADA, I cited to the case of Burch v. Coca-Cola Company, 119 F.3d 305 (5th Cir. 1997), for the proposition that temporary disabilities are not protected by the ADA. However, I did say as a preventive manner, it made sense to treat temporary…
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…
ADA compliance auditing: higher education version
By William Goren on
In a previous blog entry, I talked about a case that illustrated what not to do if you are a place of higher education seeking to dismiss a student with a disability from your program. This particular blog entry will briefly talk about another case involving a medical school and then explore the concept of…
Suing a state court system for disability discrimination: it can be done but it’s complicated
By William Goren on
What happens if a state court system discriminates against a person with a disability? That was the situation in Prakel v. State of Indiana, 2013 WL 3287691 (S.D. Ind. June 28, 2013). In this case, a deaf individual (while the court refers to him as hearing impaired, I use the term deaf because you…
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…
Service Dogs v. Emotional Support Animals
By William Goren on
One of the confusing issues out there is the difference between a service dog, emotional support animal, and a therapy dog and why it matters. 28 C.F.R. § 35.104 and 28 C.F.R. § 36.104 (the sections of the federal regulation that apply to service animals for public entities and for places of public accommodations respectively),…