Fenwick Employment Brief – November 2005

The California Court of Appeal recently ruled that, although an employer may ordinarily refuse to communicate through an employee’s attorney during the interactive process to reasonably accommodate an employee’s disability, in some limited circumstances the employer may need to communicate with an employee’s attorney. Claudio v. Regents of the University of California was just such a case. There, Michael Claudio worked as a technician for the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California Davis ("UCD"). He contracted a disease which foreclosed him from working around animals. While on medical leave, UCD informed Claudio that he had been terminated. A vocational rehabilitation specialist with UCD contacted Claudio and attempted to engage in an interactive process with him to determine if there were alternate positions that he could perform. While Claudio referred UCD to his