Episode 07: "Next Gen" Reasonable Accommodations And Disability Law Trends
Co-op and condo boards have a legal obligation to provide reasonable accommodations to residents with disabilities. Residents often request permission to live with their so-called emotional support or therapy animals (“ESAs”)...more
In the employment context, employers are required to consider whether an employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) request to bring a service animal or an emotional support animal (ESA) to work qualifies as a...more
The Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), as well as the substantially similar Florida Fair Housing Act (FFHA), prohibits discrimination in housing based on a person’s disability. As “housing providers,” homeowners associations and...more
While people may be familiar with many of the rules relating to the admission of service animals into public venues, do the same rules apply when a patient or visitor seeks to enter a hospital, medical office, or other...more
What is the difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal? A service animal is a dog which has been trained to perform a specific task or to do work directly related to a person’s disability. Service...more
I have had a handful of reasonable accommodation requests come across my desk over the last month with the same issue: when the leasing office gets a medical verification, the health care provider identifies that the resident...more
We all love and indulge our pets. My cats have “contributed” to my articles by walking across my keyboard as I work. I was less thrilled with the cats when one left a dead mouse as a present on my stairs. For some people,...more
A few days ago, many companies celebrated ‘Take Your Dog To Work Day’. At an increasing number of companies, employees take their pets to work every day. At other companies, in the ever-changing quest to be the cool kid on...more
...Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), “Service Animals” are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. This means the dog must be trained to take a...more
You have just received an e-mail alerting you to a FIDO issue and you are wracking your brain to recall the statute for which FIDO is an acronym. Then you read on and learn the email is from your new HR specialist who seems...more
Seyfarth Shaw Synopsis: Effective December 18, 2017, New York became the latest state to enact a law cracking down on fake service animals. ...more
Although it comes up most frequently when I review emotional support animal reasonable accommodation requests under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the issue of just who is “disabled” is one for all of us in the professional...more
Suppose you hire Kristin Chenoweth to be your new TV show host, and she shows up on the set with her dog Thunder, claiming she needs the dog for emotional support. Must you allow this distraction?...more
Dear Littler: One of our employees here in Iowa has requested to bring a pet pig to work for “emotional support” purposes. A pig! In a factory! Do I need to entertain her request? And if so, what do I tell other employees?...more
A couple of interesting emotional support animal medical verification questions have hit my desk over the past month. First, recall that case law on the issue of permissible credentials of a medical or health care...more
The reasonable accommodations for an employee’s disability that may be required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act can take many forms, including an employee coming to...more
The world of labor and employment law is always evolving at a rapid pace, leading us to summarize a few of the most significant cases from the previous month. February 2017 was another month that saw dramatic developments,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Supreme Court has clarified IDEA’s exhaustion requirement to allow claims brought on behalf of IDEA eligible students to proceed directly in court unless the “gravamen” of the complaint seeks relief...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Massachusetts recently enacted its first statewide ride-sharing law requiring companies like Uber to provide accessible transportation for individuals with disabilities. On the heels of news that Uber...more
Question: Our employee regularly uses a service dog in our office, which helps him with stability and maintaining balance around the office, which can be challenging for him due to several medical conditions he has. However,...more
In Flowers v. Brinda Prasad (2015) 2015 DAR 8259, disabled plaintiff John Smith and his son Seth Smith brought suit alleging they had been denied service at defendants’ business (the Valley Indian Café in Rohnert Park,...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued new guidance yesterday regarding the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to service animals. The new guidance underscores the DOJ’s 2010 revisions to the ADA...more
Increasingly, students with disabilities bring service animals to college campuses. This means that educational institutions must sort through an array of competing federal and state laws governing the use of such animals in...more