Disability Discrimination Lawyer for Wayne County
You told your employer about a medical condition, or asked for a change so you could keep doing the job. Then the write-ups started, the light-duty request went unanswered, or you were told there was “no work available” for your restrictions.
If the request came before the trouble, and you have it in writing, you may have a disability discrimination case in Wayne County. Finding out costs nothing: the case evaluation is a free 15-minute phone call, and I take termination cases on contingency. The deadline that hurts people most is not the three years Michigan gives you to sue. It is the PWDCRA rule that your accommodation request must be in writing within 182 days of when you knew you needed it. The statewide ADA accommodation and retaliation page covers the law in general. This page covers Wayne County.
How disability discrimination cases look in Wayne County
Wayne County has about 1.75 million people and a workforce built around plants, hospitals, an airport, and a large public payroll. Disability cases here follow the work.
Restrictions on file at a Ford, Stellantis, or GM plant
A line worker at the Ford Rouge Complex in Dearborn or Michigan Assembly in Wayne comes back from surgery with a ten-pound lifting limit. Plant medical enters the restriction, and placement says nothing fits. The worker is sent home on a “no work available” status that quietly becomes a termination when leave runs out. The same story comes out of Stellantis’s Detroit Assembly Complex on the east side and GM’s Factory ZERO in Detroit-Hamtramck. “Nothing fits” is a conclusion, not a process; the ADA requires the employer to look for a job that fits, including a vacant one elsewhere in the plant. Evidence: the restriction slip, the placement paperwork, the roster of jobs you could do, and any coworker with similar restrictions who was placed.
Lifting limits and patient handling at Henry Ford Health, DMC, and Corewell
Hospital work is physical. A nurse or a patient-care tech at Henry Ford Hospital, a Detroit Medical Center campus, or Corewell Health Dearborn or Taylor asks to avoid lifting or transfers for a few months. The employer says every position requires full lifting and places the employee on unpaid leave until the restriction clears. Sometimes it is right about the unit. It is rarely right about the whole hospital. Evidence: the accommodation form, the job description the hospital relies on, the postings for open positions during the same weeks, and the light-duty assignments given to coworkers hurt on the job.
Ramp, cabin, and screening work at DTW
At Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Delta employees, ground-handling and fueling contractors, and airport authority staff work outdoors, on a schedule, with equipment. Hearing loss, diabetes, and back and knee injuries all lead to accommodation requests, and the answer is often “safety” with no analysis behind it. One caution: TSA screeners are federal employees and follow the 45-day federal-sector EEO process instead. Evidence: the medical clearance paperwork, the safety justification in writing, and the FAA or company standard the employer claims to be following.
Mental-health and remote-work requests in downtown Detroit offices
The desk-job version happens at Rocket Companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Wayne State University, and the City of Detroit and Wayne County offices. An employee discloses depression, anxiety, ADHD, or a chronic illness and asks for a modified start time, a quieter workspace, or two remote days. The request is denied because “everyone is back in office,” and the next review is the first bad one in years. Evidence: the request email, the return-to-office policy and its exceptions, the reviews before and after, and the manager’s Teams messages after the disclosure.
The law that applies
Two statutes. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act covers Wayne County employers with 15 or more employees, requires an EEOC charge within 300 days at the Detroit Field Office, and caps compensatory and punitive damages between $50K and $300K by employer size. Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.1101, covers employers with one or more employees, needs no agency filing, gives you three years to sue, and has no cap.
Here is the trap. Under MCL 37.1210(18), the PWDCRA accommodation duty is triggered only if you notify the employer in writing that you need an accommodation, within 182 days after you know or reasonably should know that you need one. A conversation with your supervisor does not do it. A doctor’s note sitting in the plant medical file may not do it. An email that says “I need X because of Y” does. If you have not sent one, send it today, even after a firing, because it may still fall within the window.
Other pieces. The ADA protects you if the employer “regarded” you as disabled. Medical inquiries of current employees must be job-related and consistent with business necessity. Finite leave can be a reasonable accommodation after FMLA runs out. Reassignment to a vacant position is an ADA accommodation of last resort; Michigan courts have read the PWDCRA more narrowly on reassignment, one reason the federal claim can matter. Firing you for filing a workers’ compensation claim is separately unlawful under MCL 418.301(13). And retaliation for asking is its own claim under both statutes, whether or not you were entitled to the accommodation.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADA (federal) | 15+ employees | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Back pay, front pay, compensatory and punitive capped $50K–$300K, fees |
| PWDCRA (Michigan) | 1+ employees | Written request within 182 days; suit within 3 years | Back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional distress, fees |
| FMLA (leave for your own condition) | 50+ employees within 75 miles; 12 months and 1,250 hours | 2 years, 3 if willful; no agency filing | Lost wages, liquidated (double) damages, fees |
| Workers’ comp retaliation, MCL 418.301(13) | Michigan employers under the comp act | 3 years | Lost wages and related damages |
For every clock on the site, see Michigan employment claim deadlines.
Where your Wayne County disability discrimination case gets filed
PWDCRA and comp-retaliation claims file in the Wayne County Circuit Court at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Avenue, Detroit. ADA claims file in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, whose main courthouse is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse on West Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, after the EEOC issues a right-to-sue letter.
The choice is sharper in disability cases than in most. The PWDCRA route has no cap and no agency step, and a state-only complaint usually cannot be removed to federal court. The ADA route brings reassignment and the regarded-as theory in their fullest form and answers an employer that argues your condition is “related to your ability to do the job,” a defense the PWDCRA’s definition of disability allows. Often the answer is a state-court complaint with both counts. The Wayne County employment lawyer page covers the 2 Woodward jury pool in more depth.
I take these cases from every part of the county, whether you were a Ford employee in Dearborn, a supplier engineer in Livonia, or a nurse in Detroit.
Plant medical, “no work available,” and the UAW placement process
In a UAW-represented plant, an accommodation request does not look like an accommodation request. It looks like a restriction entered by plant medical, a placement review, and a letter. Workers are told the placement process is the accommodation, and that if nothing is found, the company has done its part.
That is not the law. The placement process is one input into the interactive process, not a substitute for it. If the plant considered only your current classification and never looked at vacancies in other departments or shifts, it did not do what the ADA requires. If it applied a rule that anyone with a permanent restriction is not returned, that is a blanket policy, and courts treat blanket policies as a failure to make an individual assessment.
The grievance your committeeperson files runs on the contract’s clock. Your ADA charge runs on the EEOC’s 300 days and your PWDCRA notice runs on 182. Neither pauses for step three. Get the placement paperwork and every “no work available” letter into your own hands now, and send the written accommodation request whether or not the union tells you it is unnecessary.
What to do in the first 72 hours
Related reading: accommodation denied, now fired and, if your leave was involved, fired after asking for FMLA leave.
- Put the accommodation request in writing today. Email HR and your supervisor stating your condition in general terms, the limitation, and what you are asking for; this satisfies the PWDCRA’s written-notice rule and date-stamps the ADA request.
- Forward the file to a personal account. Restriction slips, accommodation forms, medical department correspondence, write-ups, and “no work available” letters, before your badge or login stops working.
- Request your personnel file under Bullard-Plawecki. Michigan’s Employee Right to Know Act requires access on written request, and the file often holds the internal notes about your restrictions.
- Get your medical documentation in order. Ask your doctor for a letter describing the functional limitation and its expected duration; that is what the employer is entitled to and what a jury will read.
- Do not sign the severance yet. The release inside it covers your ADA and PWDCRA claims.
- Do not resign. A resignation turns a termination case into a constructive-discharge case, which is much harder to prove, and it can cost you unemployment.
Wayne County disability discrimination questions
My Wayne County plant says there is no light-duty job for my restrictions. Can they keep me off work indefinitely?
Not without looking. “No work available” is a conclusion the ADA requires the employer to earn by considering modifications to your job and vacant positions you could fill, across the plant, not just your line. A blanket rule that restricted workers stay home is evidence of a failure to accommodate. Get the placement paperwork, note any coworker with similar restrictions who was placed, and put your request in writing.
I asked my manager at a Detroit hospital for an accommodation out loud, not in writing. Does that count in Michigan?
For the federal ADA, probably yes; no magic words or format is required. For Michigan’s PWDCRA, no. MCL 37.1210(18) requires written notice within 182 days of when you knew you needed the accommodation, and a spoken request does not satisfy it. If you are still within that window, send an email today naming the limitation and the change you need. It preserves the state claim.
I was hurt on the job in Wayne County, filed for workers’ comp, and was fired. Is that disability discrimination?
It can be both a disability claim and a comp-retaliation claim. Firing you for filing a workers’ compensation claim violates MCL 418.301(13). Separately, if the injury left you with a lasting limitation and the employer refused to accommodate it or fired you because of it, the ADA and PWDCRA apply. The two claims are often pleaded together in Wayne County Circuit Court.
My FMLA leave ran out and I still could not return. Did my employer have to hold my job?
Sometimes. The FMLA’s twelve weeks are a floor, not a ceiling. Under the ADA, additional leave of a defined length can be a reasonable accommodation if it will let you return, and an employer that fires you the day FMLA ends without asking how much longer you need has skipped the interactive process. Indefinite leave is different; courts rarely require it. The doctor’s return date is the key document.
Can my employer demand my complete medical records before it decides on my accommodation?
No. The ADA limits medical inquiries of current employees to what is job-related and consistent with business necessity. The employer may ask for documentation confirming the condition and describing the limitation and the need for the specific accommodation. It may not require your full chart, unrelated diagnoses, or your therapist’s notes. A demand for everything, followed by a denial when you decline, is itself evidence.
Talk to a disability discrimination lawyer who takes Wayne County cases
If you asked for an accommodation at a Wayne County employer and lost your job, or were pushed onto leave with no way back, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you whether the timing and the paperwork add up to a case, and which deadline is closest.
I’m Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. More than 50 cases tried to verdict in 15 years, all on the employee side. I do not represent employers.
Working in a neighboring county? See the Oakland County, Macomb County, and Washtenaw County disability discrimination pages.