SearchNew York State HIV/AIDS Legal Services
About Our Services | Current Activities | FAQs | How to Get Help
Publications | Accomplishments
The Legal Action Center (LAC) provides legal services to HIV-positive and HIV-affected individuals and their families as well as health, human services and other agencies on a broad range of legal issues, including discrimination, confidentiality, HIV testing, government benefits, family law, living wills and health care proxies, permanency planning, HIV/AIDS reporting, partner notification, syringe deregulation, and more.
We serve several hundred clients and providers annually with funding from the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute.
To download Legal Action Center’s Leading Cases, which contains legal citations and brief descriptions of cases brought by LAC, and other documents, visit our Publications section.
(return to top)
Current Activities
- HIV confidentiality litigation project: With the pro bono support of several prominent New York law firms, LAC has pending cases against several New York metropolitan area health care providers who illegally disclosed our clients’ HIV status to family members, friends, and employers. Participating firms include DLA Piper and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Firms who formerly co-counseled cases with LAC and obtained valuable settlements for LAC’s clients include Clifford Chance, Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom, and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
- HIV testing litigation: With pro bono support of Davis Wright Tremaine, LAC is co-counseling a lawsuit against a Long Island College Hospital for performing an HIV test without informed consent.
- Re-entry project: LAC helps HIV-positive people with criminal records overcome employment and housing discrimination due their conviction histories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is it illegal for employers to discriminate against persons with HIV/AIDS?
A. While the answer is not so simple as the question, the answer is usually ‘yes.’ Two federal laws prohibit employment discrimination against persons with HIV infection or related illnesses, including AIDS, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The New York State Human Rights Law also prohibits discrimination against people with a disability, including people with HIV/AIDS. These laws do not allow employers to refuse to hire or fire a person with HIV/AIDS unless it would prevent them from performing the essential duties of the job competently and safely.
Q.What if a job application form asks if I have HIV/AIDS? Or asks if I have ever been tested for HIV?
A. Employers are not allowed to ask these questions on job applications. They are permitted to ask if you can perform the essential duties of the job you are applying for. Before making a job offer, however, it is illegal for employers to ask if you have or have been treated for any medical condition, including HIV or AIDS, and employers also are not allowed to ask you to tell them about any medications you are taking (this can indirectly reveal your diagnosis).
But employers sometimes do ask illegal questions. For help in answering, call the New York State Division of Human Rights at (212) 870-8400, the New York City Commission on Human Rights at (212) 306-7500, or the Legal Action Center at (212) 243-1313.
Q. What if I lie about being HIV positive or having AIDS?
A. We advise you to tell the truth, for a very practical reason. While an employer might not learn the truth, employers who do find out that you lied may legally deny you the job or fire you for lying.
On the other hand, if you tell the truth and an employer then rejects or fires you because you have HIV/AIDS, you can challenge that as illegal job discrimination based on your disability. Courts have found HIV infection, related illnesses and AIDS are disabilities under federal, New York State and City antidiscrimination laws.
Q. Can an employer ask me medical questions or make me take a medical exam after offering me a job? While I am an employee?
A. Yes, but only in certain circumstances.
After making a job offer, it is legal for an employer to condition hiring on the incoming employee's successfully passing a medical exam or completing a medical questionnaire before starting work - so long as the same medical requirements apply to all incoming employees in that position.
During employment, employer-mandated medical inquiries and exams are allowed only when they are job?related and consistent with business necessity. This generally means when an employee's work performance is affected, and it is reasonable for the employer to believe a medical problem underlies the work problems.
To download free materials that describe these and related issues in more detail, see the Free Publications listed below. You can also browse our complete list of documents in the Free Publications Library.
(return to top)
How to Get Help:
Individuals who live in New York or have a New York legal problem may call the Legal Action Center at (212) 243-1313, Monday through Friday during regular business hours. Individual clients should ask to speak to a paralegal. Service providers and agencies in New York calling with their own legal questions should call between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. and ask for the "attorney on call." Agencies wanting information about organizing trainings should request to speak with the training coordinator.
LAC WILL NOT RESPOND TO REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE SENT BY E-MAIL TO THE LEGAL ACTION CENTER ADDRESS OR WEB SITE AND CANNOT SERVE "WALK-IN" CLIENTS.
Free Publications Available
The Center has written a number of user-friendly publications for individuals and service providers, which explain anti-discrimination laws and privacy laws that protect individuals with criminal records, alcohol/drug histories, and/or HIV/AIDS. To download these and other Legal Action Center publications, visit the Free Publications section of this website.
The Center also has produced a free webinars series called Know Your Rights: Anti-Discrimination Laws Protecting People with Alcohol and Drug Problems and Criminal Records. To watch any of the webinars at any time, visit the Webinar Archive.
For information on the publications, videos, and DVDs that the Center sells, visit the Online Store.
(return to top)
Accomplishments
- HIV Confidentiality, April 2011: Great news in a current HIV confidentiality case. With pro bono partners at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LAC recently defeated a motion to dismiss a case charging an employee of Kings County Hospital and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation with breaching a patient’s HIV confidentiality. When the employee, a medical assistant, learned that her son’s girlfriend was hospitalized, she searched through the hospital’s electronic medical records without any authorization, learned the patient’s HIV status, and disclosed it to her son without the consent of the patient or legal authorization.
The suit charges both the employee and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which operates Kings County Hospital, with violating New York State’s HIV confidentiality law. The City moved to dismiss the suit, arguing that the plaintiff failed to comply with the shortened statute of limitations and notice requirements for “personal injury” actions. The court denied the motion, however, agreeing with LAC that HIV confidentiality cases are not “personal injury” cases, but are more akin to discrimination cases, which do not need to comply with the shortened statute of limitations. The court also denied the hospital’s motion to dismiss the case on the ground that the medical assistant was acting “outside the scope of her employment,” agreeing with LAC that it was premature to rule that she acted outside the scope of her employment there has been no discovery. Many thanks to our pro bono partners at Paul Weiss.
- LAC won a federal lawsuit on behalf of a ten-year old boy who was denied admission to the Deer Mountain Day Camp’s one-week basketball program because of his HIV status. The court granted summary judgment to the boy, ruling that the camp violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law. This victory set an important precedent for the rights of children with HIV/AIDS to participate equally in extra-curricular activities.
- LAC successfully represented a nine-year old girl in an HIV discrimination suit against the Adirondack Council of the Girl Scouts and Girl Scouts - USA. In a comprehensive settlement, the Adirondack Council agreed to revise its HIV policy to ensure that volunteers understand that girls may not be denied admission to a troop based on HIV status. The Council also established a comprehensive HIV education program for troop leaders and staff.
- LAC won a $65,000 settlement in a case charging the Social Security Administration with illegally disclosing the HIV status of a woman who applied for disability benefits.
- LAC has helped over 5,000 individuals and families solve their HIV-related legal problems from fighting discrimination to protecting their privacy rights, to getting and keeping life-saving benefits and services since establishing the Center’s HIV/AIDS Legal Services Project in 1989.
- LAC has conducted hundreds of trainings and provided technical assistance to many thousands of health and social service providers and individuals affected by HIV/AIDS on New York’s HIV testing and confidentiality laws, including information on HIV and AIDS case reporting, HIV partner notification, and occupational exposure.
(return to top)