{"id":4879,"date":"2021-11-03T11:11:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T15:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2025-02-24T13:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T18:14:11","slug":"emotional-distress-damages-and-the-rehabilitation-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/emotional-distress-damages-and-the-rehabilitation-act.html","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Distress Damages and the Rehabilitation Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can an individual get damages for the emotional distress suffered as a result of violations under the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C.A. \u00a7701 to 796 (1973))? What if that is the only harm suffered and they have no financial losses? Can an organization still be liable? In New Jersey, the answer to these questions is likely yes.<\/p>\n<p>The Rehabilitation Act (the \u201cRA\u201d) provides that individuals with a disability cannot be \u201cexcluded from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under\u201d programs that receive federal funding. Individuals who believe they were discriminated against may sue an organization under the RA, alleging a violation. There is a split among Circuit Courts, however, as to whether emotional distress damages are an available remedy under the Act. For example, the Fifth Circuit Court has found that emotional distress damages are not warranted. In Cummings v. Premier Rehab, a deaf and legally blind patient filed suit against a physical therapy provider that refused to provide her with an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. The plaintiff sought emotional distress damages only. The Fifth Circuit dismissed the plaintiff\u2019s claims, and held that because emotional distress damages are not available under a \u201cbreach of contract\u201d case, they are not available under the RA.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, the Eleventh Circuit Court in Sheely v. MRI Radiology Network, P.A., found that emotional distress damages were warranted where a deaf plaintiff and her service dog were prohibited from accompanying her minor son into his MRI. The Court explained that even where only emotional distress was suffered by the plaintiff, it was nonetheless sufficient to award damages, noting that it was \u201cthe only available remedy to make good the wrong done.\u201d Importantly, the plaintiff did not need to show physical symptoms of her emotional distress in order to recover damages.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/emotional-distress-damages-and-the-rehabilitation-act.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading Emotional Distress Damages and the Rehabilitation Act\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can an individual get damages for the emotional distress suffered as a result of violations under the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C.A. \u00a7701 to 796 (1973))? What if that is the only harm suffered and they have no financial losses? Can an organization still be liable? In New Jersey, the answer to these questions is likely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,247,291],"tags":[],"coauthors":[296],"class_list":["post-4879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-labor-employment-insights","category-gingeleskie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Emotional Distress Damages and the Rehabilitation Act &#8212; November 3, 2021 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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