Yes, I’m briefly tooting my own horn because James Herrera of the Monterey Herald interviewed and quoted me in his article “Making Business Websites ADA Compliant.” He did a good job of explaining the situation that businesses find themselves in, so the article is worth reading for reasons beyond searching for my name, which is of course the first thing I did.
Sixth Circuit affirms its commitment to the Constitution and other ADA and FHA Quick Hits
I’ve been posting a lot of blogs in the last few days in an effort to catch up with a backlog of important or at least interesting cases. Just as I was wrapping up this Quick Hits blog the Sixth Circuit handed down its decision in Brintley v. Aeroquip Credit Union, precipitating the blog’s publication. Subscribers who feel they are being spammed can rest assured the pace of posts will slacken – assuming the pace of ADA and FHA accessibility developments slackens, of course. More
From Sea to Shining Sea – Florida has something to say about ADA serial litigants
Several colleagues shared Judge Paul C. Huck’s August 23, 2019 sanctions order in Johnson v. Ocaris Management Group, Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-24586 (S.D. Fla. August 23, 2019), and it provides a good counterpoint to the cases discussed in my last Sea to Shining Sea blog. The short sweet news is that Scott Dinan, Florida attorney, and his partner in the ADA business, Alexander Johnson were sanctioned by the court and required to disgorge certain fees (amounting to $59,900) and to pay a penalty in the same amount as well as notify other courts of the sanction. However, it is worth taking a closer look at the legal grounds on which the sanction rests because those grounds may apply to other serial litigants even if their conduct is not quite as outrageous as that of Dinan and Johnson. More
Stadium Sightlines under the ADA – the winner is . . .
Nobody knows. The August 19, 2020 decision in Landis v. Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Pub. Facilities Dist., 2019 WL 3891566 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 19, 2019) is thoughtful, thorough, and from the standpoint of those looking for certainty concerning the stadium sightlines argument inconclusive. The Court denied the plaintiffs’ request for a ruling that as a matter of law the T-Mobile Stadium at which the Seattle Mariners play failed to meet ADA requirements, but the Court found it could not do so without a trial. This is the inevitable result of the complexity of stadium design and impossibility of promulgating regulations concerning the location of wheelchair accessible seating that are both specific and cover every possibility. At trial the Court will hear more evidence and make fact findings about just what comparable sightlines means in this particular stadium, but that result will likely cover only the single stadium at issue, leaving other courts and other cases to determine on a stadium by stadium basis what is good enough. More
From Sea to Shining Sea – how different courts deal with serial ADA lawsuits.
Today’s blog concerns a couple of cases reported to me by colleagues in California and New York. They give a snapshot of how courts at both ends of the country are thinking about ADA lawsuits. The snapshot at left is pretty much in the middle, near Telluride Colorado.
Welcome to the Hotel California
I was alerted to the California case, Whitaker v. ARS REI USA Corp., by Vaughn & Associates, who represent the defendant. The case illustrates the odd yin and yang of litigation in California, where the shifting tides of state law have altered the litigation landscape in recent years. To understand why requires a little background. California’s Unruh Act parallels the ADA but provides for statutory damages of $4,000 per violation. The ADA does not provide for damages, so an Unruh Act claim is better for the plaintiff. That damage remedy has driven ADA litigation at volumes that make California a clear leader in the number of ADA lawsuits filed if state and federal court cases are counted. More