If the need to keep careful track of FMLA paperwork was not already obvious, a recent decision from a federal district court in Ohio emphasizes the perils of misplacing an employee's FMLA certification. Wellman v. Sutphen Corp.

Read on to find out how to avoid the same mistakes.

The Facts

LLoyd Stephen Wellman worked for The Sutphen Corporation, which manufactures firefighting equipment, from March 2000 until July 2006. Wellman took intermittent leave from work between March and June 2006 due to arthritis. Around March 9, 2006, Sutphen gave Wellman FMLA paperwork, including a blank medical certification form. 

Wellman claimed that he returned the form on March 22, 2006. The company denied receiving the form, and could not locate a copy in Wellman's FMLA file. On June 9, the company sent Wellman a letter demanding that he return a completed FMLA certification form by June 14, just five days later. The same day Wellman's supervisor issued him a written warning for insubordination, for failing to return the FMLA forms as instructed. Wellman sent three strongly-worded e-mails to the company's president, in which he asserted that the company's threat to discharge him if he failed to return a certification violated the FMLA, that he did not understand what information the company was requiring, and would not be able to provide the information by the June 14 deadline. 

On June 14, Wellman had a doctor's appointment and gave the certification form to his doctor to complete. The doctor did so, and returned it to Wellman at he end of July. However, because Wellman failed to return the form by the June 14 deadline, the company suspended and ultimately fired him for insubordination.

The Lawsuit

Wellman filed suit in federal court, alleging that the company violated his rights under the FMLA. The company filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Wellman failed to comply with the FMLA's medical certification requirement. Specifically, under the FMLA regulations, if an employee provides an incomplete medical certification, an employer may deny the employee's request for FMLA leave if the employee fails to cure the incompleteness after specific notice from the employer and a reasonable opportunity to cure the defect. Sutphen argued that even if Wellman had turned in a valid medical certification form in March as he claimed, the form "must be deemed incomplete" because the company had no record of it in its files, and that Wellman was not entitled to FMLA leave because he failed to correct the incompleteness by the June 14 deadline. 

The court rejected this defense, holding first that a certification does not become "incomplete" merely because an employer cannot find it. Thus, if a jury believed Wellman's claim that he provided the completed certification, the fact that the company later could not locate it would not undermine the validity of the certification or entitle the company to demand a new one. Further, even if the incompleteness rule applied, the court held that a reasonable jury could find that the company failed to provide Wellman a reasonable opportunity to turn in a new certification, in that it provided him just five days to do so, and failed to provide any clarification after he complained that he did not understand what was required. 

Insights for Employers:

1. Set a clear, written deadline (at least 15 days after the request) for an employee to return an FMLA certification. If the employee fails to meet that deadline, follow up immediately with a written notice to the employee providing a reasonable period (e.g., seven days) to return the certification and explain why they failed to do so within the original deadline. 
2. If an employee claims he or she provided a certification, but you have no record of it, document that fact. Unless you can definitively prove that the certification was not provided, give the employee a reasonable time period to re-submit the form. If the employee cannot comply by the deadline despite diligent good-faith efforts to do so (e.g., the doctor is out of town), the deadline may need to be extended. 
3. If an employee provides an incomplete or insufficient certification, an employer can be required to correct the deficiencies. However, the employee must be given specific, written notice of the deficiencies, and must be given at least seven days to provide a corrected notice. If the employee needs more time despite diligent good faith efforts, the additional time should be granted. See 29 C.F.R. § 825.304(c). 

There is no question that keeping track of FMLA paperwork and staying on top of employees who fail to return it on time can be burdensome for employers. However, that burden pales in comparison to the cost and inconvenience of defending a lawsuit.