State AG files amicus brief in Ninth Circuit supporting firm clients

June 16, 2021—Firm lawyers Randy Erlewine and Kyle O’Malley last week filed an opening appellate brief contesting a San Diego federal district court’s dismissal of their clients’ complaint against U.S. Healthworks and its related entities for their invasive and overbroad pre-employment medical screenings. Today, the firm was joined in its appeal by the State of California, under Attorney General Rob Bonta, as well as by Legal Aid at Work, Disability Rights Advocates, Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and others. The Attorney General and these leading disability rights groups argued that defendants should not be categorically exempt from liability for violations of California civil rights law, as the district court found. Plaintiffs in the case alleged that defendants—who operate the largest occupational healthcare practice in California and the second largest in the country—subjected them and a class of more than 500,000 California job applicants to invasive, highly-sensitive and personal medical questioning having nothing to do with any job qualification as a condition of employment in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”), the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and intruded upon their right to privacy. Plaintiffs and the disability rights groups also requested that the appellate court refer the important questions raised in the case to the California Supreme Court for decision. Further proceedings in the matter are pending. Read the Attorney General’s press release here.