ADA Accommodation Retaliation Lawyer for Washtenaw County
You asked for an accommodation and the job changed. Not the accommodation, the job: a “concerns” meeting that had never happened before, a reassignment off the study or the unit, a contract that quietly was not renewed.
If the trouble began after the request and you can show the order of events, you may have an accommodation retaliation case in Washtenaw County, and you can bring it whether or not the accommodation itself was ever owed. The call is free, 15 minutes, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The deadline that bites first is the EEOC’s 300 days for the federal claim; Michigan gives you three years, but your university or hospital email will not wait that long. The statewide ADA accommodation retaliation page explains the law. This page is about how it plays out here.
How ADA retaliation cases look in Washtenaw County
Research staff and clinicians at the University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine
A lab manager or research coordinator asks for a modified schedule during treatment. The principal investigator says yes, then the next grant cycle “does not have room” for the position, and a new hire without restrictions appears within the quarter. On the clinical side, a nurse at University Hospital or Mott asks to come off patient lifts and finds herself floated to a unit she never worked, with a charting audit that catches errors her coworkers make every shift. Evidence: the request and its date, the PI’s or manager’s reply, the funding or staffing explanation in writing, and every performance note before the request compared with every one after it.
Trinity Health Ann Arbor, IHA, and the VA
At Trinity Health Ann Arbor or Chelsea Hospital, or in an IHA practice, a medical assistant asks for seated work between rooming patients. Within a pay period a “patient complaint” surfaces that nobody will show her, and her hours drop below the benefits threshold. At the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System the same pattern happens to federal employees, who have 45 days from the retaliatory act to contact an agency EEO counselor, a different track from everything else on this page. Evidence: the accommodation form or email, the hours before and after, the complaint itself if it exists, and the names of coworkers whose hours held steady.
Engineers at Toyota R&D, Forvia, and the Rawsonville plant
An engineer in York Township asks to work from home two days a week after a diagnosis. The request sits “with HR” for months while the engineer is dropped from the vehicle program, the mid-year rating falls from “exceeds” to “meets,” and the annual bonus follows. At the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti Township, an hourly worker hands in a restriction and is sent home “until medical clears you,” unpaid, then charged attendance points for days the company told him not to come in. Evidence: the request email and every follow-up, the program roster before and after, ratings history, the hold letter, and the points record.
Domino’s, downtown tech, and the public employers
The desk version happens at Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor Township, at Duo and the other downtown tech offices, and at Washtenaw County government, Ann Arbor Public Schools, and Eastern Michigan University. A request for a quieter workspace or a later start is followed by a “performance improvement plan” with goals nobody else on the team carries, and a manager who stops inviting you to meetings. Evidence: the request, the PIP and the goals of peers, the calendar invites you disappeared from, and Slack or Teams messages showing the change in tone after the date you asked.
The law that applies
Two laws reach this conduct, and they are not equal in Washtenaw County. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12203, bars retaliation against anyone who opposed a practice the ADA forbids and separately bars coercion, intimidation, threats, and interference with the exercise of ADA rights. Asking for an accommodation is protected under both. Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.1602, prohibits retaliation and coercion in similar language, covers employers of any size, and has no agency prerequisite.
The claim does not depend on winning the accommodation. A request made in good faith is protected even if the employer later shows the condition did not meet the legal definition or the accommodation was not reasonable. The fight is causation: under the ADA the request must be the but-for cause of the adverse action, and Michigan courts ask whether it was a significant factor. Timing, a clean record before the request, and comparators carry that burden. The PWDCRA’s rule that an accommodation request be in writing within 182 days of when you knew you needed it governs the accommodation claim, not the retaliation claim, but that written request is also your proof that the protected activity happened and when. If the dispute is whether the employer had to grant the request at all, the Washtenaw County disability discrimination page covers that claim.
For University of Michigan employees, the difference between the two laws is decisive. U-M is an arm of the state, and federal money-damages claims under the ADA’s employment provisions against the university itself run into sovereign immunity. The PWDCRA does not have that problem. A U-M retaliation case is therefore built under Michigan law from the start, and claims against the university carry Court of Claims procedures and notice requirements that have to be handled before filing, so the case should be with a lawyer before any internal finding issues. Damages are also cleaner under state law for everyone else: whether compensatory and punitive damages exist for ADA retaliation is contested in the Sixth Circuit, while the PWDCRA has no cap on emotional-distress damages. If leave was part of the story, the FMLA retaliation claim often runs alongside.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADA retaliation, 42 U.S.C. § 12203 | Employers with 15+ employees; good-faith requesters and opposers (money damages against U-M itself barred) | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Back pay, front pay, reinstatement, fees; compensatory and punitive contested |
| PWDCRA retaliation, MCL 37.1602 | Employers with 1+ employees, including U-M | 3 years; no agency filing | Back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional distress, fees |
| FMLA retaliation | 50+ employees within 75 miles; 12 months and 1,250 hours; public employers regardless of size | 2 years, 3 if willful | Lost wages, liquidated (double) damages, fees |
| Federal-sector EEO (VA) | VA and other federal employees | EEO counselor contact within 45 days | Back pay, compensatory damages, fees |
Every deadline on this page is collected at Michigan employment claim deadlines.
Where your Washtenaw County ADA retaliation case gets filed
A PWDCRA retaliation claim against a private employer files in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, 22nd Circuit, at 101 East Huron Street in Ann Arbor. An ADA retaliation claim files in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after the EEOC’s Detroit Field Office issues a right-to-sue letter; the district’s main courthouse is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, and the court also sits at the federal building on East Liberty Street in Ann Arbor. Claims against the University of Michigan itself involve Michigan’s Court of Claims rules, which affect where the case is filed and how a jury is demanded.
For retaliation cases, Huron Street is often the better room. The state claim skips the EEOC, has no damages cap, and avoids the argument over whether emotional-distress damages exist under the federal statute, and a complaint that pleads only Michigan claims generally stays in front of a Washtenaw County jury. The Washtenaw County employment lawyer page covers that jury pool and why defense counsel treat it differently.
I take these cases from across the county, whether the request went to a department in Ann Arbor, a hospital in Ypsilanti Township, or an engineering campus in Saline.
The non-renewal that follows the request: retaliation in a contract-and-grant workforce
Washtenaw County’s biggest employer runs on term appointments, grant cycles, and annual contracts, and so do many of the research institutes and startups around it. That structure gives a retaliating manager an easy tool: do not fire the employee who asked for an accommodation, just let the appointment end. Non-renewal is presented as neutral, budgetary, or “the grant didn’t come through.”
A non-renewal that would not have happened but for the request is an adverse action, the same as a termination. What proves it is comparison: other appointments in the same lab or program that were renewed on the same funding, positions that were posted or filled within months of yours “ending,” and the written renewal history before you asked. Two more things matter here. First, an internal process, whether through the university’s disability office, its equity office, or a department chair, does not stop the EEOC’s 300-day clock or the Court of Claims notice requirements; use the internal process for the record it creates, not as a substitute for the legal deadlines. Second, graduate student employees, postdocs, and house officers are employees for this purpose when they are paid to work, and their requests are protected the same way.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Put the request in writing today, even if you already made it out loud. One email to your supervisor and HR that names the condition in general terms, what you asked for, and the date you first asked satisfies the PWDCRA’s written-notice rule and dates the protected activity.
- Forward the file to a personal account. The request, every reply, the PIP or write-up, the non-renewal or hold letter, and the reviews from before you asked, before your login is disabled.
- Save the comparison. Names of coworkers on the same funding, unit, or program whose positions continued, and any posting for a role that looks like yours.
- Request your personnel file under Bullard-Plawecki. Michigan’s Employee Right to Know Act requires access on written request, and the file often shows when the “concerns” first appeared.
- Do not sign a severance or a resignation-in-lieu agreement yet. The release covers ADA and PWDCRA retaliation claims, and a resignation changes the case.
- If you are a VA employee, contact an EEO counselor now. The 45-day federal clock does not wait for anything on this list.
Denied, then let go? Read accommodation denied, now fired.
Washtenaw County ADA retaliation questions
My research appointment at the University of Michigan was not renewed a few months after I asked for an accommodation. Is a non-renewal retaliation, or just the end of a contract?
It can be retaliation. A non-renewal that would have been a renewal but for your request is an adverse action, whatever it is called. The proof is comparison: appointments on the same funding that continued, a replacement hired for work like yours, and your renewal history before the request. Because the employer is the university, the case is built under Michigan law and Court of Claims procedures apply, so involve a lawyer early.
I went through the university’s internal disability or equity process after the retaliation started. Does that protect my deadlines?
No. Internal processes create a useful record, and the findings can help, but they do not pause the EEOC’s 300-day deadline or the notice rules for claims against the university. Treat the internal process as evidence-building and calendar the legal deadlines separately. If the internal process is dragging, that is a reason to call, not to wait.
My Ann Arbor tech employer says my accommodation request was “granted,” but I was moved off my team and my equity refresh was skipped. Is that retaliation if the answer was yes?
Yes, it can be. Granting a request does not license punishing the person who made it. Losing your team, your visibility, or compensation you would otherwise have received is an adverse action, and if it followed the request, the timing is evidence. Keep the grant of the accommodation in writing alongside the reassignment and the compensation history, and note who decided each.
I am a postdoc at Michigan Medicine paid on a fellowship. Am I protected from retaliation for asking for an accommodation, or only students are covered by other rules?
If you are paid to perform work, you are an employee for retaliation purposes and your request is protected under the PWDCRA. Fellowship or training labels do not change that. Student-only protections may also apply, but they are separate. The practical difference for you is that the employer is the university, so the case proceeds under Michigan law with Court of Claims procedures, and the written request is your key document.
How does a Washtenaw County jury respond to an accommodation retaliation case that never involved a firing?
Washtenaw juries are among the most educated in Michigan and tend to follow a documented sequence: request, then change. A case built on a demotion, a lost program, an unpaid hold, or a skipped renewal reads as retaliation when the timeline is clean and the paper supports it. The absence of a firing affects the damages, not whether there is a claim. Defense lawyers know this jury pool, and it shapes how these cases settle.
Talk to an ADA retaliation lawyer who takes Washtenaw County cases
If you asked a Washtenaw County employer for an accommodation and what came back was a write-up, a reassignment, a hold, or a non-renewal, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you whether the sequence makes a case, whether the employer’s status changes the route, and which deadline is closest.
I’m Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. More than 50 cases tried to verdict over 15 years, all for employees. I do not represent employers.
Working in a neighboring county? See the Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County ADA retaliation pages.