Does she have a case? Any good ADA attorneys to recommend?

Question

My friend 'Sue' has a dilemma..

She was laid off 6 months ago and was suspicious that she was selected for lay off based on her recently diagnosed mental illness, depression/general anxiety. She spoke to her direct manager regarding her mental illness because she would need to attend therapy in addition to taking anti-depressants. She identified her disability within a week of diagnosis. (That was September 2007)

Now, 6 months after layoff, she is being contacted from ex-peers who are stating that the manager has made comments to the department about Sue being on anti-depressants.

I think she has a case... Do you agree?

She's puzzled about where to start... Any recommendations?

**Serious answers only, please**

Answer 1

Have her contact an attorney that specializes in ADA.

Most states are "at will" employment meaning they can fire for any or no reason at all. If they laid her off while under a doctors care then she MIGHT have a case for wrongful termination.

You have to decide ... Do you want to sue just to get money, or sue to educate the employer, or sue to get her job back?

Answer 2

Anti-depressants are a lame excuse for any individual.

However, if these anti-depressants affected her working ability then they have the right to fire her. In fact, every employer has this right.

I mean, you could "try" to sue based on the disability act but it will be hard to prove that was indeed the primary reason for termination.

Sorry, but I don't agree with you.

Answer 3

In law, there are rules and there are remedies. Has she suffered some harm she can prove in court? Trying to prove that she was laid off due to mental illness is a tough row to hoe.Absent some other damage, I don't think there's not a lot your friend can do. But don't take my word as final.

Answer 4

She needs to start with personal accountability and not thinking it's all about her. People get laid off constantly and what's more, EVERYONE has some "mental illness" nowadays when in reality, they don't most of the time...

I swear, when people want to sue sue sue just because they MIGHT have a case, it makes me want to puke. There are RARELY legitimate times that a person should sue, and even then they should try to work out the difference outside of court. If her employer fired her because she's (fill in her race here) or because she's not pretty enough, that would possibly warrant discussing with the manager or whoever fired her that she feels like they unfairly let her go, but even suing under those circumstances would be a bit extreme...

NOW, if her workplace was unsafe and her employers put the employees at risk knowingly and did nothing to prevent it, and she got injured (I don't mean a scraped knee, but say, a broken bone or whatever) THAT I could see justifying going to court over.

Please, just tell "your friend Sue" that she needs to buck up and find another job. And not to feed into the disease of being sue crazy that has infected our nation and forced employers to pay ridiculous settlements, which in turn causes prices to go up to the general population-which is VERY bad. In that case, I may sue Sue if she sues...

Answer 5

Disability discrimination can involve terminating someone because they have a disability, because they've received treatment for a disability, or because they are regarded as having a disability.  Proving disability discrimination can be difficult, however.  The EEOC website has a lot of information.

One place to start for information, advice, or possible assistance is your state's protection and advocacy system.  Go to www.NDRN.org and then click on the Get Help in Your State menu.

Answer 6

Being depressed isn't a disability, but if she thinks she was laid off without cause she should contact the state dept of labor and file a complaint first before she wastes money on an attorney.  If she's in an "at will" employment state they can let her go for no reason at all, and it's academic.

I would imagine HR will say they culled out the less performing employees and she was one of them, and that will be the end of it, she won't be able to prove it was a direct result of her issue.

Why in God's name would you tell your employer you have to attend therapy?  Dumb, don't do that again.

Answer 7

Usually, lay offs are decided by seniority. People with less time in at the company get laid off first. Employees with seniority will sometimes be offered a lower position in order to keep them working in favor of the employee at the lower position with less time served.

She has not been fired. She has been laid off. If and when the company is able to hire more people, she would get priority over someone who has never worked there before.

She needs to find out if anyone still working there was there for less time than her. She also needs to find out if anyone new has been hired or anyone with less time in than her has been called back to work. Even if the position is a lesser position than the one she was doing before becomes available, she still should have the first choice to take the position or not over someone new or someone with less time in than her. If it's a higher position, then someone with seniority would move into that position and that would open their old position open to her or someone else laid off with more seniority than her.

If she can prove that she was laid off instead of someone with less seniority than her, then she would have grounds to file a complaint and find out why. If she was discriminated against, then she has grounds too sue to get her job back and maybe some pain and suffering due to the negligence of the company.

She might be able to sue for her manager disclosing personal private information about her to her peers, but it would be hard to prove that's where the information came from unless all of her peers signed statements stating that that's where they heard it and it was stated in a derrogatory, discrimanating way and they felt that was the reason she was laid off.