Reasonable Accommodations for Disability

A failure to reasonably accommodate a disabled employee may result in large settlements or high verdicts, even if it was not intentional. WJA firm handles a large amount of reasonable accommodation cases every year, litigating them all the way to trial, obtaining impressive seven-figure results. In 2014, WJA obtained a $1.4 million disability accommodation verdict on behalf of an apartment manager, who was fired after taking her disability leave (pre-trial offer was $20,000/ total recovery was $2 million). In 2015, our firm obtained a $550,000 verdict on behalf of a school night custodian, who was terminated after he injured his back (pre-trial offer was only $50,000/total recovery was $1 million).

California disability accommodation laws are so complicated, that even experienced human resource managers (and company attorneys) often make serious mistakes. If a disability or medical condition is affecting your ability to work, and the employer is aware of your disability, it must take steps to reasonably accommodate your disability. This includes engaging in an interactive dialogue (basically, a conversation) to determine what type of accommodation would be appropriate for you. When the employer fails to contact you to have this dialogue and/or fails to provide an effective, reasonable accommodation for your disability, it violates the law.

Because the law in this area can be rather complex, you should contact a disability accommodation attorney at Workplace Justice Advocates, to determine whether you have a valid claim.