Animal Accommodations under the FHA – Get it right the first time.

August 17, 2017 By Richard Hunt in FHA, FHA Emotional Support Animals, FHA Reasonable Accommodation, Landlord-tenant Tags: Emotional Support Animals, Fair Housing Act, HUD, Pit Bull, reasonable accommodation

A decision from the Western District of Texas should remind landlords that the world of FHA litigation is unforgiving and expensive, so the best thing is to get it right the first time. Reading it has prompted us to re-offer our webinar on dealing with accommodation requests involving animals later this month and next. Details appear at the end of this blog.

Chavez v Aber, 122 F.Supp.3d 581 (W.D. Tex. 2015) involved a child with a mixed breed pit-bull as an emotional support animal. There was no question about the child’s psychiatric disability or the fact that the child’s doctor recommended the dog for therapeutic purposes, so the only legal question was whether to dog had to be accommodated despite a “no pets” policy and the fact that pit-bulls are regarded as a dangerous breed. That did not mean the case was simple. As the court pointed out more than once, cases involving accommodation depend very much on the facts. More

ADA and the Internet Update – DOJ sends its regulations to Hanger 51

August 6, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA Internet, ADA Internet Web, ADA regulations, ADA rulemaking, Uncategorized Tags: ADA Internet, ADA Title III Regulations, ADA web, Department of Justice ADA Regulations, WCAG 2.0

Man putting crate in storage - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark – Hanger 51

DOJ’s recent decision to put regulations concerning the internet and the ADA on indefinite hold has important implications for business, but not all of them are good.* It seems likely this move was prompted by executive orders from the Trump Administration requiring that agencies review proposed regulations and limit those that might increase costs to business. This has not been a notable success in terms of dollars. The savings so far ($22 million per year) amount to only .3% of the cost of regulations issued in the last five years. More important, at least with respect to the ADA, DOJ’s calculation that no regulation saves money ignores the very large cost imposed on business by uncertainty about how to deal with internet accessibility in an age when suing under the ADA is a large and growing industry. The proposed DOJ regulations, while they were absolutely wrong about the scope of the ADA with respect to the internet, at least provided business and the courts with guidance about what might be required. Without the regulations we are left in a wild wild west of conflicting court decisions and no officially sanctioned standard by which to judge internet compliance. More

Wasted time and money – Starbucks and the ADA

July 27, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - serial litigation, ADA Attorney's Fees, ADA Mootness, ADA Point of Sale Tags: Point of Sale, Starbucks

In some ways the 9th Circuit’s recent decision in Kalani v. Starbucks Coffee Co., 2017 WL 2813864, at *1 (9th Cir. June 28, 2017) is one of the saddest in the long history of ADA litigation. Robert Kalani was a mild kind of serial plaintiff who filed 15 cases in the Northern District of California over a period of several years. The most seriously litigated was his lawsuit against Starbucks, which claimed in part that point of sale displays encroached on the clear counter space required by the ADA. Now it is almost over, revealing both the minimal impact that individual lawsuits have on accessibility and the incredible waste of money involved in defending such cases. More

Science v. HUD – science and business are the losers.

July 14, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, FHA Emotional Support Animals, FHA Reasonable Accommodation

Anyone reading the news, or at least the disability news, understands that so called emotional support animals for persons with mental disabilities are a big deal. The number of HUD complaints based on refusals to allow ESA’s is growing, and there is a booming industry filing complaints, selling fake service dog paraphernalia, and selling bogus diagnosis of disability. With all this going on, it might be reasonable to ask whether there is any evidence at all that ESA’s at home or on an airplane are really of any value at all to a person who is disabled. Despite the noise from animal advocates, the science doesn’t support their claims. More

Getting real – a step in the right direction for ADA claims

July 3, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - serial litigation, FHA Tags: ADA Fairness, ADA pleading, Drive-by ADA Plaintiffs, FHA Pleading, serial litigation

The usual elements of a complaint filed under the FHA and ADA are:

A lengthy and unnecessary recital of the legislative history of the law, including all kinds of statements about the historical oppression of those with disabilities,
A broad allegation that the plaintiff visited the defendant’s location, without details that might make the claim verifiable, and
A series of broad statements about violations of the law that, once again, lack any detail that would make them verifiable.