Help wanted: Doctor's-note rule is legal, but . . .

"Employers can legally require their employees to produce doctors' notes to prove that their absences are for legitimate reasons and that they are fit to return to work," said employment attorney Richard Kass, a partner at Bond Schoeneck & King in Manhattan. "However, just because it's legal to require doctors' notes doesn't mean that it's a smart idea to go overboard. A doctor's note may contain information that the employer may later wish it did not know."

A company that acts on that personal information could court a discrimination lawsuit.

"If the employer fires an employee after learning that he has a medical problem, that may open the door to a lawsuit for disability discrimination," Kass said.

And the note policy itself could be risky if not applied equitably, he said.

"Moreover, if a doctor's-note policy is administered in a way that appears unreasonable and punitive, the employer may risk being sued for harassing disabled employees," Kass said. "Although the term 'disability' is defined fairly narrowly under federal law, New York State and New York City laws contain a much broader definition that could be construed as covering relatively minor illnesses."

And, your company's policy seems unusually strict.

"It is much more common for employers to require a doctor's note only when the employee has been absent for at least two consecutive days, or when the employee's pattern of absences is suspicious -- e.g. always on Mondays or Fridays," Kass said.

She should have received information about how to go about that. According to the Labor Department's website, when someone is denied benefits, that person receives a "Notice of Determination" telling him or her why the request was denied and how to ask for a hearing before an administrative law judge.