Story — continued from Page 34
Public Interest Investigations, Inc.®
procedures imposed too great of a bur- den on employees who needed leave. To do this, we did three basic things support- ed by carefully selected images. First, we wanted to emphasize that
Keith Rohman Barbara Dalton President
Vice President
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Serving law firms, corporations and public agencies for more than 25 years
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Public Interest Investigations, Inc., has a dependable team of investigators with expertise on all types of cases.
A firm where “The Truth Matters.® ”
Public Interest Investigations, Inc. 1055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1985 Los Angeles, CA 90017 213.482.1780
www.piila.com
Figure 3 36— The Advocate Magazine APRIL 2011 Figure 4
our client’s conduct needed to be consid- ered in light of what she was actually going through. But, this produced a relat- ed concern: Would the jury – none of whom shared in jury selection that they had any experience with serious mental illness – really empathize with our client’s particular situation (i.e., suicidal depres- sion)? To counter this attack, using basic “Reptile” concepts, we emphasized that the medical-leave laws are meant to pro- tect all of us because they allow employees with family or medical needs to attend to those important life events without having to lose your job. We did not limit our dis- cussion of this point to our client’s condi- tion (depression). Instead, through the use of Figures 1-3 we highlighted that the medical-leave laws exist to help employees with the myriad of different health of fam- ily medical needs that one can experi- ence.
Figure 1 illustrated that the medical
leave laws protect parents whose newborn babies are sick and hospitalized. Figure 2 illustrated that the medical leave laws are in place to help people hospitalized who have enough on their mind to worry about without having to fight to not lose their job. Figure 3 illustrated that the medical leave laws protect us when we need emer- gency surgery. After establishing that the medical leave laws protect all of us, we used Figure 4 to reinforce the point that when you or a loved one is stuck dealing with a medical or family health issue, you have enough on your mind to worry about. These powerful and memorable visu-
als helped us establish two basic, though key, points: first, that the medical leave laws protect all of us (not just those with suicidal depression) and, second, that the medical leave laws recognize that when you are thrown into a medical or family medical crisis, you have enough on your mind to worry about so you shouldn’t be required to jump through confusing hoops to get medical leave protection.
See Story, Page 38
Figure 1
Figure 2
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