The ADA action shifts to reasonable accommodation

The ADA legal action now centers on reasonable accommodation to a disability. The ADA amendments make a disability easy to prove; they don't change the law on what is or is not a reasonable accommodation. Because judge whacked most cases at the is-it-a-disability stage, courts have not really looked closely at the accommodation issue. Want a great summary? Check out U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance of the Eastern District of Louisiana's April 7 opinion in Picard v. St. Tammany Parish Hospital. She denied summary judgment on the plaintiff's reasonable accommodation claim and said several really interesting things in doing so. First, a failure-to-accommodate claim is its own cause of action under the ADA. It is unnecessary for a plaintiff to prove a separate "adverse employment action" as an element of a claim. Second, an employee can sue for failure to reasonably accommodate even if the employee has not presented medical documentation establishing the need for an accommodation -- no employer loophole there. Third, to defeat summary judgment an employee only need show that the accommodation is "reasonable on its face." Any argument on the difficulty of using or implementing the accommodation goes to the employer’s affirmative defense of "undue hardship." So, the court denied the employer's summary judgment on the reasonable accommodation claim. ADA storm clouds are gathering: more claims, fewer summary judgments, more trials. Wait and see.