It’s never good to have a medical emergency, but is there a time of the night when it’s suddenly even less good? In the context of the Family Medical Leave Act, employers and appellate courts alike have had difficulty determining what constitutes an “overnight stay” at a hospital, says Jeff Nowak of Franczek Radelet. Under the FMLA, an employee can take job-protected leave for such a stay, but it gets a little tricky if he or she is admitted to the hospital after midnight and is released that same day.

A case decided last year by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is instructive in this scenario. In the original trial, the court said an overnight hospital stay constituted from ”sunset on one day to sunrise the next day.” However, that definition wasn’t feasible as seasons change and we’re closer to one solstice or another.

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