DDA - Meaning of 'Long-term'

The EAT has handed down its decision in Patel v Oldham MBC, which is authority for the proposition that in determining whether the effects of an impairment are long-term for the purposes of the DDA 1995 Schedule 1 paragraph 2, the effect of an illness likely to develop or which has developed from another illness forms part of the assessment of whether the effect of the original impairment is likely to last or has lasted at least 12 months.

The Appellant suffered from myelitis (back pain) which developed into a secondary myofacial pain syndrome (leg pain). The Tribunal dismissed a DDA claim determining that the duration of the effects of these two impairments could not be aggregated in order to reachthe conclusion that they were long-term. Allowing the appeal, Slade J determined that the Tribunal had erred in failing to consider whether the secondary myofacial pain syndrome had developed from the Appellant's myelitis and remitted the matter for reconsideration.