Coddington, Hicks & Danforth regularly represents individuals, corporations and public entities in civil rights actions in state and federal court. These include claims by individuals that they were not suitably accommodated under state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
Whether the claim is that a citizen was wrongfully detained by law enforcement officers, that a person was subjected to discrimination or that a disabled airline passenger was not accommodated in accordance with federal law, the firm has successfully defended such claimed violations of law.

Often in these emotionally-charged and highly public cases, the most desirable resolution is one that is early and amicable. To that end, the firm frequently participates in various forms of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration and early neutral evaluation. When a suit or claim cannot be resolved informally, the firm aggressively represents its clients, always with a view toward efficient and cost-effective litigation management.

Among the types of civil rights cases that the firm has successfully defended are the following: a suit by an airline passenger who was denied transport shortly after September 11, 2001, allegedly because of his race and religion; a suit by a policyholder who claimed that he was photographed when he brought his car to the insurer for a post-accident inspection, and that this was done solely because of his race; a woman’s suit against a municipality alleging sexual harassment and wrongful termination; a suit by an airline passenger who alleged he was accused of theft solely based upon his race; and a suit by the parents of a child who alleged that the aerial application of malathion, as part of a Medfly eradication program, amounted to a violation of his civil rights. In many of these cases, the firm’s clients prevailed in dispositive pre-trial, motions which were affirmed on appeal.

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