By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance
Following three months of deliberations, a task force studying the rights of Coloradans with disabilities has softened some recommendations to boost awards in antidiscrimination lawsuits but still offered proposals likely to stir significant business opposition.
Among the task force’s recommendations are to let plaintiffs in disability-related antidiscrimination suits seek emotional damages, to replace existing caps on noneconomic damages and to extend to three years the timeline for filing such legal action. The recommendations — along with about 50 less controversial suggestions involving housing accessibility, outdoor recreation and government services — are likely to end up in a bill during this legislative session.
During sometimes combative meetings of the task force’s executive committee this month, members reined in several other proposals issued in a lengthy report in October. They did not, for example, move forward a suggestion to allow for filing of lawsuits in discrimination cases before administrative remedies within the state government are exhausted, and they rejected an effort to remove non-economic damage caps altogether in these cases.