Disability Discrimination | Lawyer Explains

In this video, I'm going to explain what disability discrimination is. If you make it to the end of this video, you'll understand how disability discrimination law works, how much you can win in a case of disability discrimination, and what to do if you think your employer discriminated against you on the basis of disability. So stick around. First off, nothing in this video is legal advice. However, if you think you were discriminated against for having a disability, feel free to reach out to my firm. The link to my website is in the description below. So what is disability discrimination under the law? Well, to answer that question, we need to first look at the law. And since I'm licensed in Washington, we'll be looking at the laws of Washington state. But disability discrimination is prohibited under federal law too, which is applicable in all states. In Washington, you can find the law against disability discrimination in RCW 49.60.180. And I'll put that law up here. The law states that it's an unfair employment practice for an employer to discriminate in compensation or in other terms or conditions of employment because of an individual's protected characteristics. Disability discrimination is one such protected characteristic. So the law is pretty simple. An employer can't fire, refuse to hire, demote, or change your employment status in any negative way because of your disability. But who is protected by this law? Well, to put it simply, the law protects disabled workers. But to understand what that means, we will have to understand the definition of disability under the law. And under Washington law, the term disability has a broad definition. A disability is any sensory, mental, or physical impairment. An impairment can be temporary or permanent, common or uncommon, and it can be mitigated or unmitigated. And for the impairment to meet the definition of disability, it also has to meet one of the following requirements. Not all of them, just one. The first option is that it's medically cognizable or diagnosable. That means that the impairment is recognized by doctors such that if you went into a doctor's office, the doctor would know about it and be able to diagnose you for having this impairment. The second option is that the impairment exists as a record or history. And that means that you actually did go to a doctor, you got treated for it, and you have a piece of paper that shows that you got treated for it. And the third option is that the impairment is perceived by your employer. So if your employer thinks you're disabled, that counts too. To succeed on your claim, you'll need to prove the following three elements. First, that you have a disability or that your employer thinks that you have a disability. Remember what we just talked about. Second, that you can perform the essential functions of your job with or without a reasonable accommodation. And third, that your employer took an adverse action against you because of your disability status or its perception of your disability. Now, proving your case isn't always enough. You need to also overcome your employer's defenses. And I'll go over the main defenses here. The first defense and the defense that comes up in almost all discrimination cases is called the legitimate non-discriminatory reason or LNDR for short. And basically, an LNDR is the employer's stated reason for taking that adverse action against you. And its stated reason will almost always have nothing to do with your disability status. I know, shocking, right? The employer will argue that what it did was not discriminatory, that it was rather based on a non-discriminatory reason. And the fact that employers almost always argue an LNDR is not surprising. Because if you think about it, if they don't offer some legitimate reason for taking that adverse action against you, then they're basically just admitting to discrimination. And some of the more common LNDRs would include taking an adverse action because of your poor performance, insubordination, tardiness. Really, it could be anything that isn't related to your disability status. But importantly, an LNDR is not a complete defense. If you are still able to show that a substantial factor in the employer's decision to take an adverse action against you was your disability status, then even though the LNDR is true, you can still succeed on your claim of disability discrimination. And of course, if you can prove that the employer is lying about its LNDR, then that will win your case too. The next defense is called the essential functions defense. And it works like this. Generally, workers are required to be able to perform the essential functions of their job. And they're required to perform those essential functions safely. Essential functions means the basic fundamental duties of a certain job. If you cannot perform the essential functions of your job, or you cannot perform them safely, then your employer has no duty to keep you employed in that position, regardless of your disability status. For instance, let's say a professional ice cream taster becomes disabled and loses his sense of taste. Because the essential function of his job is to taste ice cream, he can no longer perform the essential functions of the job because he can no longer taste. And if an ice cream taster can't taste ice cream, then he can't be an ice cream taster. That's the essential functions defense. But the essential functions defense gets a little bit more complicated than just that. Because employers have a duty to reasonably accommodate disabled workers. So if you can perform the essential functions of the job with a reasonable accommodation, then the employer's essential functions defense falls apart and it doesn't work. But reasonable accommodations is a whole nother can of worms that I'm not going to get into here. There's a lot to it and I'm planning on making a whole nother video about reasonable accommodations, or else this video is just going to go on for way too long. So check back for that video on reasonable accommodations coming soon. The final defense that I'll be going over today is the defense of knowledge, or rather lack of knowledge. You see, disability discrimination can be a little tricky because sometimes disabilities are invisible to outsiders. And your employer can't discriminate against you because you have a disability if they don't know that you have a disability. Now, the defense that they don't know about your disability doesn't work if your disability is obvious to anyone who interacts with you. For instance, if you lost the use of one of your arms and you have to show up to work every day with your arm in a sling, then your employer automatically knows that you have a disability because it's apparent to anyone who interacts with you. But if your disability involves something that is not so obvious, like a mental or psychological condition, then you'll need to show that you gave your employer notice that you have a disability, or else they'll just argue that they didn't know about it. You can give notice verbally or in a written statement. And remember, written is always better than verbal because we want a written record that we can point to in court and litigation. So what do you get if you succeed on your claim of disability discrimination? Well, under Washington's laws, you can get your lost wages, emotional distress, and attorney's fees. Lost wages is the amount of past and future wages that you lost out on or will lose out on because of your employer's illegal conduct. For instance, if you got fired because of your disability and you've been out of work for one year, the wages that you would have earned had you kept your position for that year are your past lost wages. And you can collect future lost wages too. Say, for instance, you took a job that pays less, you can collect the difference. Or if you can't find work at all, you can collect the amount you would have gotten paid had you kept your position. And the emotional distress damages is compensation for the emotional anguish that your employer put you through because it discriminated against you. For instance, if you were humiliated or embarrassed or you've lost some enjoyment in life because of what your employer put you through, a jury would then determine how much compensation your employer must give you to make up for that mental anguish. And finally, attorney's fees. You can collect the fees your attorney accrued while prosecuting your claim. And these fees will be substantial. He or she probably spent hundreds of hours working on your case. And hundreds of hours of attorney's fees is many thousands of dollars. So there you have it. Now you know what disability discrimination is under the law. Employers are prohibited from taking an adverse action against a worker because of the worker's disability. And a disability is any sensory, mental, or physical impairment. If you live in Washington and you think you were discriminated against for having a disability, feel free to reach out to my firm. And if you like this video, hit the thumbs up button and share it with other workers. The more we hold employers accountable, the more we protect other workers. Okay, that's all for me this week. See you next time.