The plaintiff — a former behavioral health counselor — alleged seventeen causes of action including disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, failure to engage in the interactive process, retaliation, wrongful termination, and multiple wage-and-hour claims. The defense strategy centered on the plaintiff's own documentary record. Medical records produced in discovery revealed a pre-existing car accident injury that the plaintiff had recharacterized as a work-related condition requiring accommodation. The timeline analysis showed that the plaintiff's accommodation requests coincided with a performance improvement plan, not with any workplace incident. The interactive process documentation — which the plaintiff's counsel argued was deficient — actually showed multiple documented exchanges where the employer offered modified duties and schedule adjustments. The plaintiff's subjective complaints of workplace stress were undermined by contemporaneous social media posts and personal communications produced under a narrowly crafted discovery request.
FEHA Defense
Behavioral Health Provider
Seventeen causes of action. Defeated from plaintiff's own documents.
The Transferable Point
The most effective FEHA defense often comes from the plaintiff's own documentary record. Timeline analysis — mapping accommodation requests against performance management events — reveals whether the disability claim is genuine or a response to discipline. Social media and personal communications produced under narrowly crafted discovery requests can undermine subjective workplace stress claims.
Methods Applied
- Plaintiff's own medical record analysis for pre-existing condition documentation
- Timeline mapping of accommodation requests against performance improvement plan
- Interactive process documentation reconstruction from employer records
- Narrowly crafted discovery requests for social media and personal communications
- Contemporaneous evidence correlation to undermine subjective stress claims
Governing Authorities
17 COAs Addressed
This matter description is for illustrative purposes only. Details have been generalized to protect client confidentiality. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.