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
Scott Dinan
Hamilton and the ADA – New technology and the same old waste of money
On January 23 the Lee Litigation Group and Scott Dinan, who frequently represent plaintiffs in ADA matters, filed suit against the producers, theater owners and others involved in the musical Hamilton. Their claim is that by failing to provide audio description* for their blind client the defendants violated the ADA. The Complaint, which can be read here, alleges both a violation of the general anti-discrimination provisions of the ADA and the specific requirement that public accommodations provide auxiliary aids. It points out, correctly, that in November of 2016 the Department of Justice issued regulations requiring audio description decoding equipment for movie theaters. Why not, it asks, require the same for theatrical productions? More