When employers get accommodation and leave wrong
Even familiar accommodation and leave scenarios can create serious exposure when documentation, reasoning, or process fails to hold up.
In this master class
Learn from the employer decisions behind multimillion-dollar verdicts and identify what to consider before a similar case lands on your desk.
Full master class video + accompanying slides
$49 members · $79 non-members
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
01You receive medical documentation, but it leaves important questions unanswered.
03A job requirement is listed as essential, but the employee says it doesn’t reflect the actual work.
02An employee’s doctor clears them to return to work, but you still have safety concerns.
04Your policy provides a clear rule, but the employee’s circumstances do not fit neatly within it.
What do you do?
“When employers get accommodation and leave wrong”
Takes you inside recent cases where employers faced these decisions, made the call, and ended up defending it in court.
You’ll see what they did, what facts worked against them, and what courts and juries focused on.
Three recent cases
Learn from decisions that cost employers millions
$22.5M
A denied work-from-home request
An employee with a high-risk pregnancy requested to work from home. Her manager supported it. HR requested medical documentation and ultimately denied the accommodation.
The case resulted in $22.5 million in damages.
$26.95M
A denied return-to-work request
A railroad employee’s doctor and physical therapist cleared him to return without restrictions. His employer kept him out because of concerns about reinjury.
The jury awarded $26.95 million, including $25 million in punitive damages.
$8.5M+
An 80-pound job requirement
After a back injury, an employee had worked for more than a year with help when heavy lifting was required. A new supervisor ended that arrangement, relying on an 80-pound lifting requirement listed as an essential job function.
The case resulted in $6.45 million in damages, plus more than $2.1 million in employee attorney’s fees and costs.
See where a defensible decision can start to break down
The verdict is only the end of the story.
The master class takes you back to the decisions that came before it. You’ll see the information employers had, the reasoning they relied on, and the details that became important once their decisions were challenged.
The goal is practical: recognize potential problems earlier and make better-informed accommodation and leave decisions.
Use those cases to sharpen how you approach
- Medical documentation and accommodation requests
- Essential job functions
- Return-to-work decisions
- Workplace policies and procedures
- Manager involvement
- The individual facts behind each case
Get the full case analysis, not just the headline
Full master class video
Go case by case through recent accommodation and leave rulings. See what happened, how employers defended their decisions, and what ultimately mattered.
Accompanying slides
Keep the case facts, claims, verdict amounts, attorney's fees, and key takeaways available for future reference.
Lessons you can bring back to work
Use real cases to ask better questions when similar accommodation and leave issues arise in your organization.
Learn from attorneys who advise employers on these issues
Robertson and Simmons bring experience across employment law, absence management, employer benefits, HR issues, and litigation to their analysis of recent accommodation and leave cases.
Sarah Simmons, J.D.
Employment and Litigation Counsel at Sun Life
Marjory Robertson, J.D.
AVP & Senior Counsel at Sun Life, Absence Management & Other Employer Benefits
Spot the risks before they become $25M+ mistakes
You can’t predict which accommodation or leave decision will eventually be challenged. You can see what happened when other employers had to defend theirs.
Get DMEC master class: “When employers get accommodation and leave wrong” and learn from recent cases before making similar decisions in your own organization.
Frequently asked questions
What does my purchase include?
The full on-demand master class video and accompanying presentation slides.
Who is this master class for?
Accommodation and leave professionals who make, support, or advise on workplace decisions.
Is this legal advice?
No. The master class is educational and is not legal advice.
Educational content. Not legal advice.
