Legal Question in Disability Law in Virginia

Re: illness discrimination

If you were not actually on leave covered under the Family & Medical Leave Act(FMLA)at the time of your termination, you cannot now retroactively make a claim for such leave and the rights and protections afforded an employee under this Act after the fact since the leave must normally be requested by the employee and approved by the employer before it actually commences(or at least shortly thereafter).

Re: illness discrimination

I am sorry this happened to you. There is no way to tell if you have a case or a good case from your email. Generally speaking, the EEOC does not do much to help redress most claims, even legitimate claims. I would be happy to consult with you, free of charge, if you want to email me or call me; or I would be happy to refer you to someone if you like.

Re: illness discrimination

I do not do these type of cases, and I do not want you to limit your inquiry to what I tell you.

However, I think you could very well have a case under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act. I don't know for sure, but enough that you really do need to consult a lawyer on this.

Your question about discrimination based on illness might NOT be the legal issue. Instead it might be a violation of the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

ALSO, Virginia is a very hard place for consumers and employees to sue businesses.

You should ask an attorney to explore whether the New Jersey company can be sued under New Jersey law.

NOTE: It may be possible to sue in Virginia, applying New Jersey law to the case. This does happen sometimes. So using NJ law does not always require you to travel to NJ to do it. It might possibly be done in a Virginia court room.

I am confident that you should have someone look at this. You MIGHT have a good case. But I cannot say for sure.

NOTE: If you got a right to sue letter, you might have a very short deadline in which to respond.

Also remember that many attorneys will not take a case that is close to the statute of limitations running out, or with deadlines already close. So if you take your case to an attorney at the last minute, they will probably not want to take the case. THey need time to research it, understand, and respond in plenty of time to still meet the deadlines.