ADA – Standing

First Fix, Then Fight – the foundation of ADA defense.

July 7, 2016 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - Standing, First Fix Then Fight Tags: ADA defense, ADA defense strategy, ADA dismissal, ada litigation, ADA pleading

“First Fix, Then Fight” has been this blog’s slogan and trademark from the beginning. This isn’t based on a philosophical opposition to litigation, which is sometimes unavoidable, but on a hard headed assessment of the economics of ADA litigation and the difficulty in winning in the early stages of a case. Last week’s decision in Burrell v. Akinola, 2016 WL 3523781 (N.D. Tex. June 27, 2016) demonstrates why first fix, then fight has to be the foundation for ADA defense.

In Akinola the plaintiff sued the defendant for various violations of the ADA. The allegations of violations were not very specific, and the allegations related to the plaintiff’s standing were also somewhat general. Of course a dismissal based on pleading standards or standing is very hard to obtain, and perhaps with this in mind the defendant chose to attack whether there was any allegation of discrimination at all; that is, had Burrell alleged a violation of the statute. More

A quick note on ADA injury – shouldn’t the injury be real?

June 5, 2016 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA, ADA - Standing Tags: ADA standing

The following observation from a District Court in Louisiana hardly seems radical:

Some injury or harm is a requisite element of the constitutional requirement that a plaintiff have standing to pursue a claim, and although courts differ in the test that they apply to measure standing in such cases, most assess, in at least some fashion, whether the plaintiff has suffered an injury or harm from a defendant’s alleged failure to comply with Title III of the ADA.

Gilmore v. Lake Charles PC, LP, 2016 WL 3039813, at *4 (E.D. La. May 27, 2016). What the Court did based on this observation was, however, unusual in the ADA context. The Court agreed to allow the defendant in a Title III case to prove that the plaintiff had not really been denied access to the defendant’s shopping center because of minor or technical failures to meet the regulatory standards for accessibility. More