Today’s case of the day is a published decision from the Sixth Circuit decided March 8, 2022. The case is Blanchet v. Charter Communications, LLC, here, and it contains a couple of lessons for employers. First, outsourcing HR doesn’t mean that you lose responsibility for what happens if the third-party administrator doesn’t comply with
indirect evidence
Failure to Accommodate, Direct Evidence, and the Interactive Process
Today’s blog entry comes from a connection to mine on LinkedIn, Janette Levey Frisch, an employment lawyer in the New York City area (East Brunswick, New Jersey), blogging at EmpLaWyerologist, http://theemplawyerologist.com/. The case is Fisher v. Nissan North America, Inc., a published decision from the Sixth Circuit decided on February 27, 2020, which…
ADA Pleading Tips
Happy new year everybody. Hope everybody enjoyed their holiday and is now raring to get back to work. Just to give everybody a heads up, the week of January 28 and February 3 may not see a blog entry for me at all. During those two weeks, I will be testifying in two different trials…
Failure to Accommodate, Direct Evidence, and Adverse Action
Today’s blog entry is going to be my last substantive blog entry of the year. My daughter is on break the last two weeks of December, and just about everybody takes the Christmas season off anyway. The very last blog entry of the calendar year is when I traditionally do my top 10 Understanding the…
Direct Evidence is a Smoking Gun

Today’s blog entry discusses two cases, both dealing with smoking guns (hence, the cannon above).
One is from the Sixth Circuit, Baum v. Metro Restoration Services, Inc., Decided on April 11, 2019. The other is EEOC v. Crain Automotive Holdings LLC from the Eastern District of Arkansas, also…
McDonell Douglas Dead or Alive?
As everyone knows, I keep a list of my favorite blogs in my blogroll section. One of those blogs on the list is Jonathan Hyman’s Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, An ABA Blawg 100 Hall of Fame Blog. I highly recommend it. Jon has a very unusual perspective on labor and employment law. In a recent…
Addiction/Perceived Addiction in the Workplace; the View from the Sixth Circuit
Today’s case is a case out of the Sixth Circuit, Ferrari v. Ford Motor Company, decided June 23, 2016. It deals with the issue of what happens when an employer perceives an opioid addiction. As is typical, my blog entry is divided into categories: facts; court’s reasoning; and takeaways. The reader is free to…
McDonnell-Douglass and the ADA; An Imperfect fit
In employment discrimination cases, there are two kinds of cases (those involving direct evidence and those involving indirect evidence). Direct evidence cases are the proverbial smoking gun. That is, the plaintiff has explicit evidence that discrimination occurred. However, in most situations, it is difficult if not impossible to find direct evidence, rather things taken together…