Los Angeles employment lawyers deal not just with cases involving gender and race-based discrimination, but also disability and illness-based bias. A former spokesman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that he was terminated from his job because he suffered from a long-term mental illness.

According to Alan Parachini, he was fired by supervisors after they learned that his mental condition had worsened, and that his doctors were recommending that he take a second leave of absence in a year. Parachini was fired from his job last month, and the termination came just three weeks after he was placed on administrative leave.  According to him, supervisors initially alleged that he had leaked information to the gossip website, TMZ.  The complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that during severance negotiations, his lawyers told his employer that his chronic depression had worsened, and that he would require a short-term leave of absence.  Ten days later, the negotiations came to an end, and Parachini was terminated.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court has refused comment on the matter.  The matter currently involves a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and could be the first step towards a civil lawsuit.

Parachini has been suffering from depression for more than a decade, and the supervisors were well aware of his health condition.  Last year, he had taken a six-week leave of absence due to his mental illness.  However, when the depression symptoms began to worsen in the fall of 2010, Parachini did not tell his supervisors.  He initially believed that the condition would get better with medications and did not believe that his health condition would affect his job performance.  He was ultimately fired, and is claiming discrimination because of his illness.