Fired Allstate Lawyer Gets Job Bias Trial Over Need to Try Cases

Allstate Insurance Co. was denied a pretrial win in a disability discrimination lawsuit by a former in-house litigator who says he could have remained in the job if he’d been excused from performing jury trials.

Whether doing trial work was an essential function of his position is a disputed issue of fact, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York said Monday. Resolving that issue will involve “weighing the evidence and making credibility determinations,” so a trial is needed, the court said.

Allstate’s evidence that “trying cases” was an essential duty for Ronald Egers and its other ...