At the annual Kentucky Society of Human Resources Management conference held in Lexington, Mitzi Wyrick, Tyson Gorman, Brandon Girdley, Lillie Stivers, Drayden Burton, and Angie Thompson conducted a 2-part mock trial on August 28, 2025. Following abbreviated opening and closing statements and testimony from 2 witnesses, the jurors deliberated about events adapted from a real trial. The actual dispute concerned whether a former employee was denied reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and whether the employee was retaliated against after requesting accommodations. The employee had a social anxiety disorder and requested accommodations when the employee’s job was going to be changed to require more presentations and client-facing business development.
Despite the fact that the mock trial was presented to a room of human resource professionals, the “juries” returned widely varying verdicts. The four juries rendered verdicts ranging from a mixed verdict partially for the defense and awarding the plaintiff only $90,000 for retaliation to a full plaintiff’s verdict with an award of $5 million. In the actual trial, the plaintiff received $24 million.
Key takeaways from the presentation included always completing the interactive process to determine whether an employee needs a reasonable accommodation and to avoid combining a discussion of a possible severance package with the discussion of reasonable accommodations.
