Medical Leave

Employees who work at companies of a certain size, and who have worked for them in a full-time capacity for over a year, may be entitled to medical leave for certain medically qualifying reasons, for themselves or to care for an immediate family member, or for the birth or adoption of a child, under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA"). At Utreras Law Offices, our lawyers understand the regulations the FMLA imposes on both employers and employees.

 

Improperly denying or interfering with such rights may have significant consequences to your company that could otherwise have been readily avoidable. However, employers are entitled to request certain documentation from an employee's physician to corroborate such requests.

 

If you have a question about what your FMLA rights and obligations are, as either an employee or business, under these laws, please contact us.

 

Disability

The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), via the recently implemented ADA Amendments Act of 2008, broadened the coverage of what constitutes a "disability" for purposes of requiring an employer to provide such individuals with a reasonable accommodation, unless it poses an undue hardship on the employer.

 

State and federal disability laws prohibit discrimination or harassment not only against those that may actually have a qualifying disability, but those that may have had a history of a disability, or are perceived as being disabled (even though they are not).

 

Sometimes, work-related injuries can result in an employee becoming a qualified individual with a disability, on top of their pending or resolved worker's compensation claim. In these instances, employers have to carefully balance their concerns against a returning employee reinjuring him/herself, against the employee's right to return to work with or without a reasonable accommodation.

 

If you feel you have been discriminated against due to an actual or perceived disability, or if your business has encountered a disability situation with an employee, contact us for a consultation to see how we may assist you in maneuvering through the ADA - a complicated area of employment law.