Since 2010 the Department of Justice has been in the process of creating rules for web access under the ADA. No rules have been proposed, and this month the DOJ announced that it was splitting the proposed rule making into two parts and delaying the issuance of a notice of proposed rule making for both. The original proposed rules were to cover both Title II entities (cities other municipalities) and Title III entities (private businesses operating as places of public accommodation. The Title II rules will now proceed as a separate process with an earlier proposed date. More
ATM Litigation
Standing for serial plaintiffs – it’s a legal issue, not a moral problem
Accessibility litigation under the ADA and FHA always seems to have a moral component. This is partly because plaintiffs almost always preface their complaints with a lengthy and unnecessary recitation of Congressional intent about the ADA and FHA, frequently accompanied by statistics about the number of disabled Americans and the discrimination they suffer. Defendants for their part are almost always outraged at being sued without notice over what they regard as purely technical violations that have often been present for decades without complaint. More
Prying open Pandora’s Box – ATM litigation in Texas
Most of the 37 ATM lawsuits filed in Texas since June of 2012 have been dismissed or settled, but two have just moved past the motion to dismiss phase and may become significant as models for later class actions concerning ATMs and other facilities. The decisions denying the defendants’ motions to dismiss point to some of the problems with this kind of case and suggest strategies for dealing effectively with them. More