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Category Archives: Disabilities

How Much Is Your Arm Worth?

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Disabilities, Employment Law, Workers' Compensation

≈ Comments Off on How Much Is Your Arm Worth?

Tags

ProPublica, Workers' Compensation

How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work, by Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, ProPublica Blog

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-much-is-your-arm-worth-depends-where-you-work

Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in neighboring states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries.

At the time of their accidents, Jeremy Lewis was 27, Josh Potter 25.

The men lived within 75 miles of each other. Both were married with two children about the same age. Both even had tattoos of their children’s names.

Their injuries, suffered on the job at Southern industrial plants, were remarkably similar, too. Each man lost a portion of his left arm in a machinery accident.

After that, though, their paths couldn’t have diverged more sharply: Lewis received just $45,000 in workers’ compensation for the loss of his arm. Potter was awarded benefits that could surpass $740,000 over his lifetime.

The reason: Lewis lived and worked in Alabama, which has the nation’s lowest workers’ comp benefits for amputations. Potter had the comparative good fortune of losing his arm across the border in Georgia, which is far more generous when it comes to such catastrophic injuries.

This disparity grimly illustrates the geographic lottery that governs compensation for workplace injuries in America. Congress allows each state to determine its own benefits, with no federal minimums, so workers who live across state lines from each other can experience entirely different outcomes for identical injuries.

Nearly every state has what’s known as a ‘schedule of benefits’ that divides up the body like an Angus beef chart. . . .

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Is Claustophobia A Viable ADA Lawsuit?

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Americans With Disabilities, Disabilities, Employment Law, Wrongful Termination

≈ Comments Off on Is Claustophobia A Viable ADA Lawsuit?

Tags

ADA, Claustrophobia, Debra Cassens Weiss, Employment Law, Motion to Dismiss, U.S. District Judge Berle Schiller, Undisputed Legal Inc., Wrongful Termination

Lawyer’s Claustrophobia ADA Suit Survives Motion To Dismiss, by Debra Cassens Weiss, Undisputed Legal Inc.

https://undisputedlegal.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/lawyers-claustrophobia-ada-suit-survives-motion-to-dismiss/

A Philadelphia lawyer who claimed her law firm failed to accommodate her claustrophobia may proceed with her lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled. E refused to dismiss the disability suit against the law firm Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.) reports. The plaintiff, former law firm associate Erica Serine, had claimed the law firm refused to accommodate her disability and then fired her.

According to Schiller’s Feb. 25 opinion (PDF), Serine had requested a transfer in 2012 from a Marshall Dennehey office in Moosic, Pennsylvania, to an office in Philadelphia or Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to be close to family in the area. The firm allowed a transfer to the Philadelphia office.

But Serine says she experienced anxiety and other symptoms of claustrophobia beginning with her elevator ride to the 24th floor of the Philadelphia office on Oct. 1, 2012. She ‘obsessively researched evacuation plans’ and had trouble sleeping and eating, the opinion said. She was extremely nervous at work, particularly when in the elevator or when away from a window.

The law firm allowed Serine to work from home while she sought treatment with a psychologist, but turned down her request to work at the Cherry Hill office or Pennsylvania offices in King of Prussia or Doylestown.

In December 2012, Serine was advised she could work in Philadelphia or Moosic, but she could not continue to work from home. She was fired the next month. . . .

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Note Limited Time to File Employment Discrimination Charge!

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Anti-Retaliation, Bullying, Disabilities, EEOC, Employment Law, Fair Labor Standards Act, Gender Discrimination, Harassment, Hostile Work Environment, Minimum Wage, Overtime, Pregnancy Discrimination, Race Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination

≈ Comments Off on Note Limited Time to File Employment Discrimination Charge!

Tags

Anti-Discrimination, EEOC, Employment Law, EPA, Equal Pay, Harassment, Sex Discrimination, Title VII

Time Limits For Filing A Charge, U.S. Equal Employment Commission

http://www.eeoc.gov/employees/timeliness.cfm

The anti-discrimination laws give you a limited amount of time to file a charge of discrimination. In general, you need to file a charge within 180 calendar days from the day the discrimination took place. The 180 calendar day filing deadline is extended to 300 calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis. The rules are slightly different for age discrimination charges. For age discrimination, the filing deadline is only extended to 300 days if there is a state law prohibiting age discrimination in employment and a state agency or authority enforcing that law. The deadline is not extended if only a local law prohibits age discrimination.

Note: Federal employees and job applicants have a different complaint process, and generally must contact an agency EEO Counselor within 45 days. The time limit can be extended under certain circumstances.

Regardless of how much time you have to file, it is best to file as soon as you have decided that is what you would like to do.

Time limits for filing a charge with EEOC generally will not be extended while you attempt to resolve a dispute through another forum such as an internal grievance procedure, a union grievance, arbitration or mediation before filing a charge with EEOC. Other forums for resolution may be pursued at the same time as the processing of the EEOC charge. . . .

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DOJ Warns Louisiana Supreme Court To Stop Civil Rights Abuse of Bar Applicants.

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Americans With Disabilities, Disabilities, Legal Ethics, Louisiana Supreme Court

≈ Comments Off on DOJ Warns Louisiana Supreme Court To Stop Civil Rights Abuse of Bar Applicants.

Tags

ADA, Alan Childress, Alston Walker, Dane Ciolino, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, DOJ, Lauren Michel, Legal Profession Prof Blog, Louisiana Bar Admission, Louisiana Supreme Court, Loyola

DOJ Sends Critical Letter to Louisiana Supreme Court re its Bar Admission Process, by Alan Childress, Legal Profession Prof, Legal Profession Prof Blog

http://tinyurl.com/qhryrrf

Dane Ciolino (Loyola-New Orleans, Law) has blogged on the recent letter of warning the DOJ sent the state’s supreme court and chief disciplinary counsel about the civil and disability rights of its applicants. . . .

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March 2014 Deadline for Federal Contract Compliance Program’s Revised Rules.

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Affirmative Action, Disabilities, Employment Law, Federal Contract Compliance Program, Veterans

≈ Comments Off on March 2014 Deadline for Federal Contract Compliance Program’s Revised Rules.

Tags

Affirmative Action, Disabilities, federal contractors, Husch Blackwell LLP, Lexology, Mary Elizabeth “Molly” Kurt, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program, Veterans

2014 Model Documents For New OFCCP Regulations, by Mary Elizabeth “Molly” Kurt, Husch Blackwell LLP, Lexology

http://tinyurl.com/kanzksl

Ms. Kurt has attached forms in Word to her post. -CCE

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s revised rules for veterans and individuals with disabilities take effect March 24, 2014. In addition to goal-setting/benchmarking and increased attention to good faith efforts, the rules will require federal contractors to deploy a number of new or revised forms. The forms include applicant and new hire invitations to self-identify, mandatory elements of job posting communications with the state job service, and new elements of the EEO job advertisement tagline. Certain of these documents will be required beginning on March 24, 2014, and use of others can be delayed until the first date of your next affirmative action plan year.

 

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March 24, 2014 Deadline for U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Final Rules Affecting Veterans and Persons With Disabilities.

10 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Affirmative Action, Disabilities, Employment Law

≈ Comments Off on March 24, 2014 Deadline for U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Final Rules Affecting Veterans and Persons With Disabilities.

Tags

Affirmative Action, JDSupra Law News, Kimberly Korando, Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan, U.S. Department of Labor, Veterans, Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Ac

OFCCP Issues Final Rules on Affirmative Action Obligations for Veterans and Persons with Disabilities, by Kimberly Korando, Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P. , JDSupra Law News

http://tinyurl.com/k97tbpf

The United States Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has issued two final rules that will require significant changes to covered federal contractors’ and subcontractors’ (“contractors”) affirmative action programs for veterans and individuals with disabilities. One of the new rules makes changes to the regulations implementing the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (“VEVRAA”) and the other relates to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 503”).

Contractors will be required to comply with the new rules effective March 24, 2014 with the exception of Subpart C regulations. The effective date for compliance with Subpart C regulations will vary depending on whether the contractor has an affirmative action plan in place on March 24, 2014. Contractors who do have such plans in place on March 24, 2014 will be permitted to delay compliance with Subpart C until the beginning of their first plan year after March 24, 2014.

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