Employment Discrimination

An Atlanta Hospital Worker Receives $55K After Her Employer Failed to Accommodate Her Mental Health Disability

December 9, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

As of 2020, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 53 million American adults — or 21% — had one or more forms of mental illness, which can cover a wide array of disorders from depression to anxiety to schizophrenia to addiction. Fortunately for those who experience mental illness to an extent that it impairs major life activities, the Americans With Disabilities Act offers substantial protection against employment discrimination. If you have a mental health disability and your employer failed to accommodate that disability, then they may have violated the ADA. You should contact a knowledgeable Atlanta disability discrimination lawyer to find out if an ADA violation has taken place and, if so, what your next steps should be.

That sort of failure to accommodate was exactly what allegedly happened to one employee of Atlanta’s largest public hospital, and it ended with the worker securing a payout via a settlement.

The worker, a certified medical assistant (CMA), began experiencing symptoms of depression in September 2019. The woman visited a doctor, who diagnosed her with severe depression. Based on that diagnosis, the employee asked for a little more than a month of leave.

The Critical Importance of Timely Filing an EEOC Charge and the Potentially Devastating Consequences to Your Georgia Discrimination Case of Missing the Deadline

September 16, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In a lot of walks of life, some people like to say that “timing is everything.” If you’ve endured employment discrimination in Georgia, timing isn’t everything when it comes to succeeding in a civil action, but it may be the only thing that matters if you fail to meet the law’s filing deadlines. The crucial importance of timely filings — and the catastrophic havoc missed deadlines can create — are just further evidence of why, if you’re the victim of age discrimination at work, you need to ensure you retain the services of a skilled Atlanta age discrimination lawyer right away.

In most discrimination cases, one of your first deadlines is the one for filing a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As one recent age discrimination case from here in North Georgia illustrates, missing this deadline can be devastating to your case.

The time period for filing this EEOC charge varies by state. For most types of discrimination claims, the deadline is 300 days if the state has its own fair employment practices agency (or a local agency) that enforces state/local laws prohibiting that type of discrimination. These kinds of states are called “deferral states.” Continue reading ›

Discrimination Lawsuits in Georgia, ‘Comparators,’ and What Does (or Does Not) Make Workers ‘Similarly Situated’

August 17, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When you’re pursuing an employment discrimination case, the court will be looking for certain types of proof from you, including evidence that the employer treated you less favorably that a similarly situated coworker. “Similarly situated,” in this context, means someone who’s professionally very much like you except that they fall outside the protected class that serves as the basis for your lawsuit. These coworkers are called “comparators” and you can name one or name several. Succeeding in a case that demands comparator evidence means understanding exactly how similar you and that coworker must be, which is one of many areas where having a knowledgeable Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer on your side can be crucial.

As an example, we can consider the race and age discrimination case of K.L., a Black man in his 50s who worked as a security guard at a medical center. The guard’s job entailed guarding “patients who were considered especially at risk for harming themselves or others.” The guard’s employer fired him after he allegedly left a high-risk patient unattended for “some period of time,” during which time the patient escaped.

After the termination, K.L. sued for race discrimination under Title VII and age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Standards of Causation for Federal Retaliation Claims in Georgia

August 10, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

There are a wide array of pieces of information that can help your employment discrimination case. Many may involve factual issues and tend to prove the discrimination you’ve alleged. Other are matters of law, like the degree of causal connection you need to succeed in your type of discrimination case. A knowledgeable Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer is someone who can combine your factual evidence with an in-depth knowledge of the law to give you the total representation you need.

M.L.’s race discrimination case was one where issues of causation were key. She was also a Black woman over the age of 40 and a mammographer at an Air Force base in Florida, In 2016-18, she allegedly experienced discrimination at her job with the Air Force.

By the summer of 2016, the mammographer’s supervisor was a non-Black woman under the age of 40. That supervisor allegedly engaged in a variety of forms of discrimination that included: berating her, failing to give her feedback as part of a negative performance evaluation, and criticizing her for failing to complete non-mandatory tasks.

Using Comparator Evidence in Proving Your Age Discrimination Case in Georgia

June 23, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When this blog looks at recent case decisions, we often explore outcomes where an injured worker was successful. Sometimes, though, cases that ended unsuccessfully provide the best lessons and tips for a worker contemplating a discrimination lawsuit. Of course, whether it involves utilizing cases where the other worker won or lost, count on a knowledgeable Atlanta age discrimination lawyer to take the law, alongside the specific facts of your situation, and combine them for the strongest possible case.

The age discrimination case of R.W. is good example of how another worker’s failure may help pave the way for your success. R.W., the deputy fire chief for a city just south of Macon, responded to a fire alert he received on his cell phone at roughly 8:00 p.m. one night in 2018.

The deputy chief’s regular shift ended at 5:00 and, in the intervening three hours, he allegedly drank one 24-ounce beer. At the scene, a lieutenant and an assistant chief each allegedly noticed the smell of alcohol on the deputy chief’s breath. The deputy chief also allegedly was “slurring his speech a little.” The deputy chief denied having consumed alcohol.

A Georgia County’s Decision to Exclude Gender-Affirming Care from Its Health Insurance Plan Was a Title VII Violation, According to a Federal Judge

June 9, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Over the last decade-plus, much has been made about the way Americans obtain healthcare services and health insurance. Even after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most Americans still get their health insurance coverage via their employer. Given the cost of healthcare in this country, employer-provided health insurance coverage often represents one of the more important terms and conditions of any job. That means that a denial of coverage on an improper basis can constitute illegal discrimination. If it’s happened to you, a knowledgeable Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer can help you learn more about protecting your rights.

One Georgia deputy’s discrimination case represents an important area where employer-provided health insurance coverage issues may constitute a Title VII violation: exclusions from coverage for gender-affirming care.

In 2018, A.L., a trans woman and a deputy in the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, notified her employer that she was trans and began transitioning. She underwent hormone therapy and “top surgery.” (Top surgery, according to the Mayo Clinic, seeks to “increase breast size and change the shape of the chest” to make it more feminine in appearance.)

Blackballing and Other Types of Covert Employment Actions, and the Significance They Have in Your Georgia Retaliation Case

May 10, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A situation where an employer terminated or demoted an employee shortly after that employee made a complaint about illegal discrimination or harassment is one possible example of impermissible retaliation. However, what can constitute actionable retaliation goes way beyond that. If your employer took punitive action against you because you spoke up against illegal employment practices, then you should get in touch with a knowledgeable Atlanta employment retaliation case.

As an example of how broadly the law against retaliation stretches, there is this case from neighboring Alabama, in which the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions control federal cases in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida) entered a decision in January.

The worker, J.S., was an administrative assistant working for a local police department in suburban Birmingham. In the summer of 2015, the police chief denied the assistant’s request to take a day off using her compensatory time. As a result, the assistant made a formal written complaint to human resources accusing the chief of sex discrimination. The complaint alleged that the chief treated J.S. differently than the department’s male employees when it came to approving the use of earned compensatory time.

A Six-Figure Civil Judgment and the Lessons That Can Be Leaned About Psychological Conditions and Disability Discrimination

April 15, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Mental health conditions can be challenging things for those who have them. People may fail to understand your condition, may fail to appreciate the severity of the condition, or otherwise not treat the condition with the care necessary. When those failures have an impact on your job, they may represent disability discrimination in violation of the law. If you’ve endured such a scenario, an experienced Atlanta disability discrimination lawyer may be able to help.

Recently, news sources around the world reported on the case of a Kentucky man who recovered a six-figure civil judgment. Some headlines appeared to say that the man received a $450,000 payday because his employer threw him a birthday party he didn’t want.

The truth, as is often the case, was far more complex. The employee was a man who had an anxiety disorder that intermittently triggered panic attacks. One such trigger was being placed at the center of attention, such as celebrations of his birthday.

A Georgia Worker’s Self-Authored Discrimination Complaint Fails Due to Multiple Pleading Mistakes

March 31, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

If you believe that you’ve been the target of discrimination at work, the right Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer can help you in innumerable ways. One of the key areas where your attorney will help is the composition of the complaint that you’ll file with the court.

There are certain things you must do and certain things you must not do, and failures in these areas can lead to the dismissal of your case. Getting this right is critical, and many potential traps await those who don’t know what they’re doing.

The discrimination case of an employee at a southwest Georgia college makes for a good example. In any discrimination case, you have to allege that you suffered some type of adverse employment action. There are a lot of different actions your employer can take that the law may recognize as adverse. Obviously, getting fired is an adverse action. So is a demotion, and even a lateral transfer may be adverse if your new job has lower pay or is less desirable or prestigious.

How ‘No-Fault’ Attendance Policies May Run Afoul of the FMLA or the ADA

March 11, 2022 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Employers today continue to innovate in many areas related to the operation of their workplaces. When they do so, modifications in the way workplaces function may impact many areas. Sometimes, they may even violate certain employment laws, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and/or the Family Medical Leave Act. If that has happened to you, don’t suffer in silence. Instead, retain an experienced Atlanta employment retaliation lawyer and take action.

One of those relatively recent innovations is the “no-fault” attendance policy. These policies are used by some of America’s biggest employers, in industries ranging from food processing to hospitality to manufacturing to retail. Under a “no-fault” system, you, as an employee, incur a “point” (sometimes called an “occurrence”) each time you have an unplanned absence, late arrival, or early departure, regardless of the reason.

On the surface, it might sound good, as it potentially removes the need to jump through various paperwork-acquisition tasks and other hoops to justify or excuse your absence. However, these policies have downsides. For one thing, some can automatically trigger severe consequences after an employee exceeds a certain number of occurrences. These consequences may include a suspension without pay or termination, even if all of the employee’s absences were legitimate and medically based.