COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Help businesses shake frivolous lawsuits

Thousands of California businesses, particularly small businesses, have been hit with a continuing stream of frivolous shakedown lawsuits for allegedly violating the access requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Under the federal ADA, a business that is open to the public must comply with specific standards to provide equal access for persons with disabilities. The ADA correctly allows a person with a disability who cannot access a public building the right to file a lawsuit.

California is one of only three states in the nation, along with Florida and Hawaii, that allows for plaintiffs filing ADA lawsuits to seek punitive damages, attorneys fees and extra monetary sums.

Unfortunately, businesses throughout the state have been targeted by unscrupulous individuals aptly termed “ADA frequent filers” who file look-alike lawsuits where a single plaintiff and their lawyer file lawsuits alleging the same violation against numerous small businesses in a particular area.

Many times the plaintiff and their lawyers don’t even bother to change even minor details in the charges against the businesses before filing suit.

One plaintiff, whose suits center around small businesses in Garden Grove, Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Orange, Tustin, Buena Park, Stanton, Seal Beach, Santa Ana, Dana Point and Huntington Beach, has filed more than 200 lawsuits since 2003. He and his attorney are making quite a profit at the expense of our small business community.

Many times the violations businesses are being sued for are as small as a handle bar in the bathroom being centimeters too high or low. Or, in one case, a parking space was not compliant because it had been measured from inside the white lines — the space was completely compliant when measured from the outside edge of the white lines. Businesses, many of them small businesses, are being hit with huge fees due to violations just like these where access has not been denied.

Unfortunately, these “frequent filers” are harming more than just the business community. Perhaps most importantly is the effect these bogus claims have on undermining the credibility of the legitimate disabled community. In addition, the state does not provide uniform guidelines as to what businesses must do to be compliant.

Since there are no guidelines, local building inspectors and architects are approving a vast array of designs causing inconsistency in ADA compliance. Add this to the technical nature of the law on this subject and a business would need a team of lawyers just to figure out how to adhere to the ADA.

As a result, a growing number of small businesses have closed their doors for good, unable to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal defense costs, leaving workers unemployed, and lowering local tax revenues.

For these reasons, my colleagues and I have formed a working group to bring together the diverse interests that are affected by this predatory practice, including representatives from the business and disabled community, building standards and inspectors along with the builders and contractors.

Our goal is to institute reasonable provisions to stop these shakedown lawsuits while still providing protection for those the ADA was designed to protect.

I believe that helping to improve access for persons with disabilities while at the same time removing the lucrative incentives to file predatory, shakedown ADA lawsuits are attainable, worthwhile goals.