The ADA allows a physical exam to be made after a conditional job offer. That is, it is perfectly permissible under the ADA to offer a person a job conditionally subsequent to taking a physical. If the employer denies employment after the physical exam (i.e. takes back the conditional job offer), the employer must do
Americans with Disabilities Act
Undue Hardship in the Financial Sense: A Viable Defense?
By William Goren on
Posted in Federal Cases, Title I
This blog entry can be divided neatly into two parts. In the first part, I play a game of true false based upon the issues that arose in the recent case of Attiiogbe-Tay v. Southeast Rolling Hills LLC, which recently came down from the United States District Court of Minnesota. The second part explores…
ADA Audit: Disaster Planning Version
By William Goren on
Consider whether you would want to be involved in the following: a six-day bench trial; 35 witnesses, including city officials, experts, and persons with disabilities; 25,000 pages of documentary exhibits; several hundred pages of briefing and proposed findings of fact; and an additional trial to assess whether the city can justify its lack of accessibility…
Access Now v. Southwest Airlines overruled by regulation? Department of Transportation, Internet accessibility, kiosk accessibility and the Air Carrier Access Act
By William Goren on
The issue of whether the Internet has to be accessible to a person with a disability is an issue that we have discussed before. One of the cases out there is the case of Access Now v. Southwest Airlines, 227 F. Supp. 2d 1312 (S.D. Fla. 2002), where the Southern District of Florida…
Service Dogs Redux: the Texas approach
By William Goren on
Without exception, or maybe a rare one, every day my blog entry on service dogs and the Department of Justice regulations dealing with them with respect to title II and title III entities, gets at least one visit from someone. That blog entry deals with the federal approach to service dogs with respect to title…
Is indefinite medical leave a reasonable accommodation under the ADA? ? State Law? Local municipal law?
By William Goren on
Posted in State Cases, Title I
In a prior blog entry, we discussed whether indefinite medical leave was a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. In that blog entry, we discussed a case from the 10th circuit, where they held that indefinite leave was not a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. But that isn’t the end of the matter. What about…
Mixed motive and title I redux
By William Goren on
One of my more popular blog entries is the blog entry discussing University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. In that blog entry, I talked about how that decision necessarily means that mixed motive jury instructions are available with respect to ADA title I (non-retaliation) claims. We now have a case, Siring…
Does a resignation end an employer’s duty to accommodate an employee?
By William Goren on
Posted in Federal Cases, Title I
An employee learns that she has cancer. Shaken up by the diagnosis she returns to work the same day and tells the on-site coordinator of her diagnosis. The on-site supervisor then communicates same to the company’s administration and on-site operations manager for the regional area explaining that the employee has been sent home because of…
SSDI v. ADA and the doctrine of judicial estoppel
By William Goren on
Person works for a company of over fifteen employees, develops a disability, and is terminated from her position because of that disability. She then files for SSDI. She then brings suit under the ADA for failure of the employer to reasonably accommodate her disability.
In these type of situations, the employer will invariably defend using…
When it comes to licensing, can a public entity conduct its processes in a way that discriminates against persons with disabilities or in a way that mandate discrimination against persons with disabilities?
By William Goren on
Many years ago I represented a public entity that was the subject of an adverse licensing decision. In that particular situation, the public entity had a group home for persons with a certain type of disability. The Medicaid certification inspection was done in such a way so that the disabilities of the people living in…