Opinion
No. 11 C 8827
12-16-2011
DENISE JONES, Plaintiff, v. BHS CONSULTING CORP., etc., Defendant.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Denise Jones ("Jones") has used the Complaint of Employment Discrimination form provided by the Clerk's Office to charge her ex-employer BHS Consulting Corp. ("BHS") with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and of Title VII (the latter being predicated on alleged race-based discrimination), coupled with an added charge of retaliation. Jones has accompanied her Complaint with two other Clerk's-Office-supplied forms: an In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application") and a Motion for Appointment of Counsel ("Motion"). This memorandum order reflects this Court's threshold evaluation of Jones' filings.
As for the Application, it confirms Jones' financial inability to pay the $350 filing fee, and so the Application is granted. Although this memorandum order later grants the Motion as well, a brief discussion of her substantive claims is in order first.
For one thing, Jones needs to amplify one portion of her Complaint's allegations--in that respect they provide no clue as to how Jones' alleged impairment substantially limits some major life activity, as the ADA requires. For the most part she simply asserts "I am an individual with a disability." In one or two places she does refer to "Hepatitis C," but she does not then go on with any assertion about how any major life activity is limited by that impairment.
Next, although Jones has checked the box at Complaint 512(g) relating to retaliation, none of her allegations appears to support that assertion. As with her ADA claim, something more is needed.
But because Jones has plausibly kept herself in court with her assertion of race-based discrimination, the Motion is granted as well. This Court has obtained the name of this member of the District Court's trial bar, who is appointed to represent Jones pro bono publico:
Richard N. Kessler, Esq.
McDonald Hopkins LLC
300 North LaSalle Street
Suite 2100
Chicago IL 60654
That initial survival of her Title VII invocation based on alleged race discrimination also calls for the contemporaneous setting of an initial status hearing date, and a separate minute order has done so today. Jones' appointed counsel will be expected promptly to clear up the ADA and retaliation aspects of the Complaint discussed earlier, so that BHS will be enabled to respond to the Complaint in its entirety.
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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge