James Korte In D’Onofrio v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 19-10663 (11th Cir., July 6, 2020), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the reversal of a $775,000 verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The court ruled that the evidence presented at trial was not sufficient to support the employee’s claim that the employer failed to […]
Tag: ADA
Ninth Circuit Benchslaps EEOC’s Perplexing ADA Position Shift
By John Doran The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that an employer may use after-acquired evidence to demonstrate that an employee is not qualified and therefore is not entitled to ADA protection. Anthony v. TRAX International Corporation, No. 18-15662 (9th Cir. April 17, 2020). In reaching this holding, the Court flatly rejected the EEOC’s […]
Convenience of the Employee Is Not Grounds for Accommodation Request
By Beth Ann Lennon “The ADA is not a weapon that employees can wield to pressure employers into granting unnecessary accommodations or reconfiguring their business operations.” The Sixth Circuit reaffirmed this fact in Tchankpa v. Ascena Retail Group, Inc., a case involving an employee’s request to work from home due to a shoulder injury. The interactive process in Tchankpa lasted more […]
Work-Related Stress Not a Disability
By Joseph Hunt It is a common scenario: An employee claims a particular supervisor causes too much stress, exacerbating a medical condition, and the employee requests reassignment as an accommodation. Must the employee be reassigned as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA? “Not so fast,” says the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In Woolf v. […]
UPS Delivers Cautionary Tale
By John Doran Maximum leave policies are ubiquitous. These policies typically state that an employee who does not/cannot return from leave within a specified period (e.g. 12 months) will be discharged. Last year the EEOC issued “guidance” reminding employers that it views maximum leave policies as a violation of the ADA. Last week the EEOC […]
AZ ADA Trolls Benchslapped
By John Alan Doran An Arizona trial court today put a stop to one of the more egregious abuses of civil rights laws, dismissing well over 1,000 lawsuits filed by ADA trolls against Arizona property owners and lessees. The explosion of ADA lawsuits in Arizona has been well documented by the media. But most of […]
2 Key SCOTUS Spokeo Takeaways
By John Alan Doran The Supreme Court held this morning that a party suing for a purely technical violation of a statute (in this case, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”)) must demonstrate that he/she has suffered or is likely to suffer a concrete harm from the statutory violation. Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins. Robins sued Spokeo under […]
Retaliation Encyclopedia
By Andy Volin The EEOC just released proposed enforcement guidance on retaliation, and at 73 pages, it has everything you ever wanted to know on the topic. This is the first time since 1998 that the EEOC has updated its guidance on this topic, and the EEOC is soliciting public comment until February 24, 2016. […]
Wellness Rewards Under GINA
By Brooke Colaizzi The EEOC has issued proposed regulations addressing the legality of inducements for spousal participation in wellness programs under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The original GINA regulations prohibited employers from offering inducements to an employee for providing genetic information, including genetic information about employees’ spouses. The EEOC has now declared that […]
Websites Must Be Accessible
By Ted Olsen So you’ve been waiting for those website accessibility regulations promised by the Department of Justice almost FIVE YEARS ago? Wait no longer. The Department of Justice recently filed briefs indicating its position: If you are a “public accommodation” under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act, and you have a website, all the […]