CASE SUMMARY:
School Principal was counseled for disruptive behavior, including vulgar language, belittling people, antagonistic and vindictive behavior toward subordinates and creating "warring camps" among her staff.

The district knew that she "may have suffered from physical or mental disability."

She asked for reasonable accommodation, stating that behavior was caused by pain medication she took for work-related shoulder injury.

Instead, the school district demoted her to an elementary school classroom teaching position, without an interactive process that should have explored all feasible alternative positions, including lateral transfer.

Attorney's fees are a recoverable item of damages for the plaintiff, as long as s/he recovers any amount in compensation. The reasonable value of the plaintiff's legal fees is determined based on the amount of time it takes for the plaintiff to recover - and may actually exceed the other compensatory damages.

WHAT WENT WRONG:
Court trail (judge decided rather than a jury). Judge concluded that the District violated FEHA by failing to engage in the interactive process before demoting her to teaching position.

WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE/LESSON LEARNED:

Engage. Engage in the interactive process.  Show a “good faith effort”.

RESULTS:

Damages awarded by jury and upheld on Appeal: $285,182.60: $112,289 economic and non-economic damages; $172,893.60 in plaintiff's attorney's fees as an item of damages.