It was not clearly established at the time that an employer must first give an employee an opportunity to cure any inauthenticity of an FMLA certification before contacting a medical provider.
Vacating a district court’s judgment denying qualified immunity to a Commonwealth Attorney based on its determination that it was clearly established in November 2021 that an employer could not contact a medical provider to authenticate an employee’s FMLA certification without giving notice to the employee, the Fourth Circuit found that FMLA regulations had not so clearly defined such a rule. Accordingly, the contours of the legal rule adopted by the district court were not so readily apparent that it would be clear to a reasonable official that their conduct would be unlawful in this particular situation. The question of whether the attorney would be entitled to qualified immunity if such immunity was available for FMLA interference claims was remanded for further consideration (Mook v. Hall, No. 25-1677 (4th Cir. Aug. 4, 2026)).
The plaintiff in this case is a former Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Martinsville, Virginia. In May 2020, he took FMLA leave to care for his ailing mother. A year and a half later, he again requested FMLA leave for the same purpose.
Certification form. To get his 2021 leave approved, the employee was asked to submit a completed FMLA certification form to the city’s HR department. He filled out the form, including the portion that was...
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