Disability Law

The biggest hurdle for lawyers with disabilities: preconceptions

A few years ago, a young associate in the Chicago office of Schiff Hardin asked senior partner Max Brittain for advice. She was often late with assignments, especially the big ones, but didn't want the partner she worked with to know she had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and was taking medication for it.

"I finally convinced her that she was digging a hole she'd never get out of if she didn't come forward," Brittain says. "It was hurting her career."

Jun 1, 2015 5:50 AM CDT

Increased awareness of Alzheimer’s disease is prompting a new push to use an old advance directive

One in three seniors will die with some form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. And that fact has given rise to an increased interest in VSEDs, a form of advance directive that provides an end-of-life strategy for the devastating disease. Short for “voluntarily stopping eating and drinking,” VSEDs…

Jun 1, 2015 4:00 AM CDT

Disability lawyer who made $22M cleared by probe, his lawyer says, but SSA axes some client benefits

Nearly two years after a Kentucky attorney and a West Virginia administrative law judge were accused of working together to get disability payments for individuals who may not qualify for them, an investigation has fizzled out, according to a lawyer for attorney Eric Conn. Both Conn and the judge said…

May 27, 2015 11:40 AM CDT

DOJ investigates California court restrictions on voting by intellectually disabled persons

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a complaint that California courts systematically and illegally strip the intellectually disabled of their right to vote. When Teresa Thompson applied for a guardianship to oversee health care and legal matters for her 18-year-old autistic son, Stephen Lopate, an attorney was appointed by…

May 22, 2015 11:35 AM CDT

ADA suit says school district fails children living with violence, loss and poverty

A federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claims the Compton school district is violating federal law by failing to provide services to children exposed to persistent violence, family hardship and poverty. The suit (PDF) claims violations of the federal Rehabilitation Act and Americans With Disabilities Act, report Courthouse News Service,…

May 21, 2015 2:24 PM CDT

Law firm asks 3rd Circuit to block court-ordered interviews of over 30 clients

Facing sanctions over thalidomide birth-defect litigation that was determined to be either baseless or time-barred, did the plaintiffs’ law firm dismiss 27 cases for its own benefit? That is the question a federal judge in Philadelphia is asking and seeking to answer by having special master William Hangley interview more…

May 20, 2015 1:05 PM CDT

A ‘bait and switch’ cert petition? SCOTUS sidesteps question on ADA rights of mentally ill arrestees

The U.S. Supreme Court knocked lawyers for the city of San Francisco when it ruled Monday on only one question in a case involving a mentally ill woman shot and wounded by police officers after they entered her room and she charged them with a kitchen knife. The majority opinion…

May 18, 2015 11:54 AM CDT

Businesses say plaintiff who won $360K in dozens of ADA suits may not be disabled

Carl Barnum III won $360,000, plus another $135,000 for his lawyer by filing over 100 disability discrimination suits. Then a group of California businesses hired a lawyer and aggressively defended his claims. They claim that they discovered that Barnum, who filed suit under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act may…

May 15, 2015 12:00 PM CDT

7th Circuit OKs deaf teen’s suit against Girl Scouts over lack of sign-language interpreter

A deaf teenager has a right to sue the Girl Scouts for failing to provide a sign-language interpreter under the federal Rehabilitation Act, a federal appeals court has ruled. Reversing a federal district judge’s ruling that the statute doesn’t apply to a private membership organization, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit…

May 12, 2015 3:30 PM CDT

Project attorney’s ADA suit says Pepper Hamilton didn’t accommodate his sleep disorder

A former project attorney for Pepper Hamilton has filed a pro se lawsuit (PDF) against the Philadelphia-based national law firm, contending that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to accommodate his sleep disorder. Andrew Fischer alleges that the law firm denied his repeated requests for a work…

May 8, 2015 1:35 PM CDT

Judge: Woman with history of stowaway attempts will be jailed if she keeps going to airports

During the past year, a 63-year-old retired legal secretary with a penchant for spending time at airports—and, authorities fear, a yen for totally ticketless travel—has tested the resources of the judicial system in at least four states. But on Thursday, an Illinois judge told Marilyn Hartman that she would be…

May 7, 2015 3:45 PM CDT

Serial stowaway attempter is charged with trespassing at Chicago airports

A 63-year-old retired legal secretary who repeatedly made headlines within the last year as she was charged with airport-related trespasses and stowaway attempts in multiple states is back in the news again. Marilyn Hartman, who at last report was being dealt with by authorities in Florida after allegedly checking into…

May 6, 2015 11:05 AM CDT

Ex-lawmaker charged with felony sex abuse is acquitted by jury

A former state lawmaker being criminally tried in an unusual sexual-abuse case, based on his late wife’s dementia, was acquitted Wednesday by an Iowa jury. Henry Rayhons was charged in the felony case after staff at the nursing home at which Donna Rayhons was then living determined, with the help…

Apr 22, 2015 4:10 PM CDT

Don’t participate in employee wellness program? Penalty can’t be too harsh, EEOC says in draft rules

Employers who want to punish employees who don’t participate in wellness programs can’t be too punitive, according to draft regulations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The preliminary regulations were drafted to take into account the Americans With Disabilities Act, which restricts medical information that employers can obtain from…

Apr 20, 2015 12:24 PM CDT

Telecommuting option not required by ADA for job demanding ‘interpersonal skills,’ says court

An en banc federal appeals court has ruled that Ford Motor Co. was not required to offer a telecommuting option to a worker with irritable bowel syndrome and whose job required “good, old-fashioned interpersonal skills.” The 8-5 en banc opinion (PDF) on Friday by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court…

Apr 14, 2015 5:45 AM CDT