Courts Continue To Wrestle With Whether Long-Term Leave Can Be A Reasonable Accommodation Under The ADA

Executive Summary: When an employee seeks leave as an accommodation for a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the decision regarding whether to grant or deny the request can be challenging. Employers must look closely at the particular circumstances of every case in order to determine whether the amount of leave requested can be provided to the employee without causing undue hardship to the employer's business. The fact-intensive nature of this decision makes predicting the length of leave that an employer must provide to an employee difficult, and employers do not know whether their decision will later be second-guessed by a court. Notably, however, a recent decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals alleviates this challenge for employers in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. In Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18197 (7th Cir. Wis. Sept. 20, 2017), the court adopted a bright-line rule instead of using the