Issues Regarding Service Dogs

Saturday, June 17, 2006 | 0

The following is an adaptation from a thread post in the California Injured Workers Forum. The editors felt the material was of interest and relevant to the audience, so it has been republished here with identifiable information redacted and edited for grammar, spelling and clarity.

My service dogs have been assisting me with my disabilities for six years. The insurance carrier says I can't bring her with me when I go to the doctors in the transportation they provide. They often want written proof, their training, etc., all in violation of the American with Disability Act. The transportation companies have no problem. Can I file a discrimination claim against the carrier? Or is this a civil/federal case? Thank you.

Service dogs are addressed by both federal law (ADA and others) as well as California law (Unruh Civil Rights Act, to be specific). Ask your insurance company to provide you with a statement in writing regarding your dogs. If they give it to you, they are in Big Trouble. Or you could try being nice and telling them they're violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act - the relevant sections are at the bottom of this post.

Filing a federal suit regarding service dogs is a horrendous project and usually ends up doing little or nothing unless you can prove significant actual damages. The Office of Civil Rights will give you a tiny bit of sympathy and tell you to go away.

California law has some real teeth, though. And it's easy to use. There's an automatic $1000 penalty for restricting access to any place of business including medical offices, and that specifically applies to "preventing or causing the prevention of a guide dog, signal dog, or service dog from carrying out its functions in assisting a disabled person." You can file suit in Small Claims Court, and you will win. I've helped my clients do it several times.

There is one point where some people trip up - your service dogs have to be on a leash and must have a license tag from your local Animal Control department or County Clerk saying the dog is a service dog.

---------------------------------------

Since this is an insurance company, they come in for special scrutiny. File a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. You obviously have Internet access, so go to this web page (you'll need to copy and paste it - I haven't bothered to learn how to make it an active link):

http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/Publications/DFEH%20600-02.pdf

That's the questionnaire DFEH uses.

Also, call DFEH at 1-800-884-1684 to start the formal complaint process. They'll do a screening interview over the phone - which is the reason having the info on the form is helpful. If they find that you have a legitmate complaint, they'll set up an interview, sometimes by phone and sometimes in person.

--------------------

Here are the actual legal codes involved:

Civil Code Section 54.1. Access to public conveyances, places of public accommodation, amusement or resort, and housing accommodations:
(a) (1) Individuals with disabilities shall be entitled to full and equal access, as other members of the general public, to accommodations, advantages, facilities, medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices, and privileges of all common carriers, airplanes, motor vehicles, railroad trains, motorbuses, streetcars, boats, or any other public conveyances or modes of transportation (whether private, public, franchised, licensed, contracted, or otherwise provided), telephone facilities, adoption agencies, private schools, hotels, lodging places, places of public accommodation, amusement, or resort, and other places to which the general public is invited, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, or state or federal regulation, and applicable alike to all persons.

Civil Code Section 54.3. Violations; liability
(a) Any person or persons, firm or corporation who denies or interferes with admittance to or enjoyment of the public facilities as specified in Sections 54 and 54.1 or otherwise interferes with the rights of an individual with a disability under Sections 54, 54.1 and 54.2 is liable for each offense for the actual damages and any amount as may be determined by a jury, or the court sitting without a jury, up to a maximum of three times the amount of actual damages but in no case less than one thousand dollars ($1,000), and attorney's fees as may be determined by the court in addition thereto, suffered by any person denied any of the rights provided in Sections 54, 54.1, and 54.2. "Interfere," for purposes of this section, includes, but is not limited to, preventing or causing the prevention of a guide dog, signal dog, or service dog from carrying out its functions in assisting a disabled person.

-------------------------------

The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of workcompcentral.com, its editors or management.