If you are a New Jersey employee and your employer denied your request for a reasonable accommodation for your disability to allow you to keep working, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. We have locations in Northern, Central, Southern and Western NJ to meet with clients and accept cases from all over the state. This law firm has successfully represented numerous employees who had visible or hidden disabilities which were temporary, permanent, or intermittent, who had their rights violated, and was successful in obtaining for them the reasonable accommodations required to enable them to remain employed, recovered money for pain and suffering; and was successful in financial remuneration for lost wages, both past and future lost wages, in termination cases. DON’T SIT ON YOUR RIGHTS! Contact us today for a free consultation.
ACCOMMODATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR PERMANENT, INTERMITTENT, OR TEMPORARY, VISIBLE OR HIDDEN DISABILITY.
The time basis of your disability could be temporary (such as for pregnancy, see New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer, or recovery from an operation) or intermittent or permanent. Your employer has a duty to provide you with a reasonable accommodation for your disability to allow you to perform the essential functions of your job. See Pregnancy Discrimination at Work Can Be a Triple Bias in NJ. The accommodation could be for working remotely from home, for intermittent leave, a change of hours depending on the facts, or a host of other accommodations. To read about asking for an accommodation, read NJ Disability Attorney, Disabled Employees Should Ask in Writing for Reasonable Accommodation.
Even if you are an ineligible employee for leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, the FMLA, you may still be eligible for leave as a reasonable accommodation for your disability under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination or possibly the Americans with Disabilities Act. To read about the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on employees with disabilities, see NJ Employment Disability Attorney, Disabled Employees Not Accommodated and Illegally Terminated.
DON’T SIT ON YOUR RIGHTS! Contact us today for a free consultation.
HOW THE ADA DIFFERS FROM THE NJLAD IN PROTECTING PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) each provide protections for employees with disabilities, but there are several differences in between the statutes, some of which are:
1.) Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employees may file an ADA lawsuit in federal court only after they exhaust their administrative remedies and receive a “right-to-sue” letter from the EEOC. If you work in New Jersey, you may file a discrimination NJLAD lawsuit directly in NJ Superior Court under the NJLAD, more quickly and easily without being required to first exhaust any administrative process with a government agency.
Statistics reveal that employment discrimination plaintiffs fare better in state court than in federal court. A major newspaper reported a study for publishing those plaintiffs in Federal Court won only 15% of employment discrimination cases during a twenty-seven-year period. By comparison, in all other combined civil cases during the same twenty-seven-year period, the plaintiffs won at a rate of 51%. Employment discrimination plaintiffs in federal court also get less time in court and have their cases thrown out, and have more cases dismissed before trial.
Employment discrimination cases tend to fare poorly in federal court compared to NJ State Court.
2.) Definitions of a Disability
An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.
The NJLAD, however, has a broader definition. This definition under NJLAD potentially covers more employees.
The term “disability” is very expansive under NJLAD and includes any physical disability, infirmity, malformation, or disfigurement caused by bodily injury, birth defect or illness, any mental, psychological or developmental disability that results from conditions that prevent the normal exercise of any bodily or mental function or which can be shown to exist through accepted clinical or laboratory diagnostic tests.
In addition to any disability, you now have, the NJLAD also protects against discrimination based on any “perceived disability” that your employer thinks you have now, any disability you had in the past, or that someone thinks you had in the past, or any disability that you might get in the future.
3.) Scope of Coverage
The ADA applies nationwide and covers employers with 15 or more employees. The NJLAD applies only to NJ employees but it applies to all employers regardless of size. New Jersey Disability Discrimination Lawyer.
DON’T SIT ON YOUR RIGHTS!
DON’T WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE TERMINATION. If you are a worker with a disability, who is denied a reasonable accommodation to enable you to keep working, or who is being pushed out of your job, or your boss says your job is being eliminated, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. I have represented numerous disabled employees who were told their job had been eliminated, and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. DON’T WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE TERMINATION. Once you are denied an accommodation to enable you to keep working, or are on notice that your job may be eliminated, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation and to discuss all your options in the safest way for you. See Employment/Civil Rights Law.
I accept employment cases from all over New Jersey and have locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.