Neighborhood coffee shops and craft breweries have seen a noticeable increase in lawsuits recently. These are not large national chains with in-house legal teams. They are community-based businesses—often operating in older buildings—that may not know they are violating the law until they are served with a lawsuit. Under the Americans…
Few states present greater ADA litigation risk to medical practices than California. In recent years, plaintiffs and ADA rights advocates have increasingly targeted medical facilities across the state, often filing high-volume lawsuits based on technical accessibility violations. Many practice owners are caught off guard, believing they are either compliant or…
If you own a business in California, chances are you’ve heard about serial ADA litigants. This isn’t a coincidence. California is widely considered ground zero for serial ADA litigation. But why here? And what can you do to protect your business? California’s Laws Make ADA Lawsuits More Attractive to Plaintiffs…
Section 55.54 Protections For years, California businesses and their organizations have been trying to rein in the plethora of ADA lawsuits, particularly those filed by a handful of plaintiffs and their law firms to curb litigation abuse. Those trying to curb ADA litigation abuse have made several apparently important inroads.…
So Cal Equal Access Group (So Cal) files ADA lawsuits almost on a daily basis. By and large, these lawsuits filed in Federal Court focus on the lack of accessible parking, inaccessible paths of travel to the building entrances, inaccessible entry doors, transaction counters that are excessively high and bathrooms…
In 2023, more than 1.4 million plug-in electric cars were sold in the U.S. The electric vehicle share of the total U.S. market was 7.6%, which is up from 5.9% the prior year, and expected to hit 31% by 2050. Given these numbers, it is inevitable that the motor vehicle…
Marty Orlick, Chair of JMBM’s ADA Compliance & Defense Group, was recently interviewed by ABC7 for a news report regarding the impact of serial ADA litigants on small businesses. The segment focused on a group of businesses in Santa Paula, California, who have been hit with lawsuits alleging violations of…
The prevailing wisdom in Americans with Disabilities Act litigation is that defendants who successfully prevail in ADA and Unruh Civil Rights Act lawsuits cannot recover their attorneys’ fees or defense costs. This prevailing wisdom compels most businesses to settle, rather than pursue a meritless case to summary judgment or trial.…
Today, the US Access Board announced that it is seeking final public comment on its newly proposed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines for the use of lower transfer heights for medical diagnostic equipment in medical diagnostics and treatment. The US Access Board is the federal organization that develops guidelines for…
On June 12, 2023, the California Assembly’s Judicial Committee re-drafted the content of an existing bill, AB1757, to pertain specifically to website accessibility and the adoption of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.1 into disabled access law. AB1757 specifically permits plaintiffs the right to sue businesses if the business’s…