Employers have long sought guidance on just how much leave the ADA requires, but employment law attorneys say there’s no firm answer. The law requires that employers assess each request individually and consider its reasonableness in light of the affected role, duties and other factors.
A 2017 ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shifted the landscape when it held in Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., No. 15-3754 (7th Cir. Sept. 20, 2017) that a multimonth leave of absence could be reasonable under the ADA. That ruling still stands (as the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to rehear it) but it applies only in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and employment law attorneys say other rulings have started to chip away at it.
