Cole County Jury Awards Fired Employee Over $2 Million

On April 9, 2022, a Cole County jury awarded more than $2 million to a former researcher at the Missouri House of Representatives.  The plaintiff claimed he was discriminated against when he was fired in 2017, after his supervisors failed to properly accommodate his request for medical disability and was then fired after he threatened to report them to the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.  The defendants did not accommodate the plaintiff’s accommodation requests claiming they did not have a procedure or policy in place for their employees to make workplace accommodations.  The case highlights the dangers employers face when handling accommodation requests by employees.  It also shows how important it is to have a well thought out plan for processing accommodation requests.