Disability Discrimination Lawyers in Charleston, WV

• Dismantle employer excuses: We meticulously audit internal corporate communications, manager text messages, and the exact timing of your firing to prove that your medical needs, and not a fabricated performance issue, were the true driving force behind your sudden termination or demotion.
• Streamline the legal process: Our legal team handles every phase of the administrative maze, managing your strategic filings with the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), or building your case for immediate action in state or federal court.
• Stop workplace retaliation in its tracks: Standing up for your health is a protected legal right. If your employer attempts to punish, ice out, or penalize you for requesting an accommodation or speaking out against bias, we aggressively expand your legal claim to include separate, high-stakes retaliation charges.

Disability Discrimination: The Legal Framework.

Workplace disability discrimination occurs when a covered employer treats a qualified applicant or employee unfavorably because of a physical or mental disability, a history of a disability (such as cancer that is in remission), or because the employer perceives the individual as having a disabling impairment.

Two powerful legal frameworks protect disability rights.

• The West Virginia Human Rights Act (WVHRA): Applies to state employers with 12 or more workers and provides robust state-level protections.
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): A federal civil rights law protecting individuals nationwide who work for employers with 15 or more employees.

Under these laws, if you possess the required skill, education, and experience for your position, and you can perform the core duties of your role, either on your own or with a "reasonable accommodation," your employer cannot legally discriminate against you.

Your Right to Reasonable Accommodations

The law requires employers to do more than refrain from firing disabled workers; it forces them to actively participate in making the workplace accessible. 

A reasonable accommodation is any change or adjustment to a job, work policy, or work environment that allows an employee with a disability to complete their tasks successfully. West Virginia employers are legally obligated to engage in an interactive process, a good-faith dialogue with you, to figure out an accommodation that works. 

Common examples of reasonable accommodations include the following. 

• Modifying work schedules: Adjusting shift start and end times to allow for medical appointments or physical therapy. 
• Job restructuring: Reassigning minor, non-essential tasks to other workers while keeping your primary duties. 
• Acquiring or modifying equipment: Providing ergonomic workstations, specialized software, voice-to-text tools, or modified mechanical controls. 
• Providing job leave: Granting a specified period of paid or unpaid leave for medical treatment or surgery, and protecting your position while you are away (including protecting your return from Family and Medical Leave Act leave).
• Workspace adjustments: Altering the physical layout of an office, factory floor, or break area to make it fully accessible.

When Can an Employer Refuse? An employer can only deny an accommodation request if they can prove it creates an undue hardship, meaning the accommodation would cause significant structural difficulty or extreme expense relative to the company's overall financial resources. 

A major corporation or hospital can rarely claim undue hardship for simple equipment or schedule changes.

How Disability Discrimination Manifests

Corporate bias against injured or ill workers is rarely explicit. Addair Entsminger PLLC looks for the common, hidden ways employers break the law.

• Failure to accommodate: Refusing to discuss or implement a simple, doctor-recommended restriction, effectively setting you up to fail.
• Termination following leave: Wrongfully firing or replacing you the moment you request or return from approved medical leave.
• Perceived disability bias: Firing an employee because management falsely believes a medical diagnosis makes them incapable, even though the worker is fully cleared to perform their job.
• Hostile work environment: Allowing supervisors or coworkers to mock, harass, or penalize you because of a physical or mental impairment.

Legal Remedies & Compensation

If we settle or win your disability discrimination lawsuit, you may be entitled to recover:

• Full back pay and lost benefits
• Future projected earnings if returning to your old workplace is impossible
• Compensatory damages for emotional distress, humiliation, or anxiety
• Punitive damages against employers who act with malicious disregard
• Attorneys’ fees

The Clock Is Ticking. Protect Your Future. 

If your employer has denied your accommodation request, demoted you after a medical diagnosis, or wrongfully terminated your employment, you cannot afford to wait. 

State and federal laws impose strict deadlines for filing a claim, ranging from 180 to 365 days from the discriminatory act. Put our decades of combined litigation experience on your side to fight for your health, dignity, and livelihood.

Call (304) 902-8518 or message a team member online to book your case evaluation with a Charleston disability discrimination attorney today.