Re:Crema Coffee in San Jose Closes Due to ADA Lawsuit
by triceratops on Monday February 03, 2020 @08:28PM
(#22231410)
Yes and no. Businesses that aren't ADA-compliant are violating the law. But the motives of many of those filing are also suspect. From the article:
"The disabled man’s attorney, Tanya E. Moore, for years has been the subject of much scrutiny for suing thousands of small businesses across the South Bay, filing more than 1,400 ADA cases in recent years...The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Moji Saniefar, claims Moore’s ex-husband Ronald, who is a plaintiff in more than 200 filed cases, faked a disability in order “to collect quick settlements."
So in this case, the filing attorney is being sued for fraud? (I'm not a lawyer). Not a good look. But going on..
"...in California unscrupulous lawyers bypass the law’s good intentions by taking advantage of the state’s generous payouts to disabled individuals who sue, often targeting hundreds of small businesses at once, according to Sacramento-based small business defense attorney Rick Morin. For many ADA cases, the minimum in statutory damages starts at $4,000."
Sounds like patent troll tactics. Damages large enough to add up to serious money at scale, but small enough that they aren't worth fighting for the defendant.
"These “shakedown” lawsuits, added Morin, are often based on small, “technical violations” that can be easily fixed if a letter is sent to the business owner. But under California law, a disabled person cannot claim money if they send the business owner a letter with their complaint first."
Which means the money is more important than fixing anything. A business that couldn't afford to become ADA-compliant can definitely not afford to fix it after paying a settlement. And it's very well possible that money that could have gone into fixing the problem for all future disabled customers (surely the actual point of the law) is instead going to attorneys and plaintiffs.
Bottomline: no one comes out looking good in this particular case. If this cafe's ADA retrofit is going to cost $100k then it wasn't an easy fix and the business owner should have done better research into the law before renting/buying that location.
But there also seems to be a non-zero number of BS lawsuits incentivized by the way the law is right now.
"The disabled man’s attorney, Tanya E. Moore, for years has been the subject of much scrutiny for suing thousands of small businesses across the South Bay, filing more than 1,400 ADA cases in recent years...The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Moji Saniefar, claims Moore’s ex-husband Ronald, who is a plaintiff in more than 200 filed cases, faked a disability in order “to collect quick settlements."
So in this case, the filing attorney is being sued for fraud? (I'm not a lawyer). Not a good look. But going on..
"...in California unscrupulous lawyers bypass the law’s good intentions by taking advantage of the state’s generous payouts to disabled individuals who sue, often targeting hundreds of small businesses at once, according to Sacramento-based small business defense attorney Rick Morin. For many ADA cases, the minimum in statutory damages starts at $4,000."
Sounds like patent troll tactics. Damages large enough to add up to serious money at scale, but small enough that they aren't worth fighting for the defendant.
"These “shakedown” lawsuits, added Morin, are often based on small, “technical violations” that can be easily fixed if a letter is sent to the business owner. But under California law, a disabled person cannot claim money if they send the business owner a letter with their complaint first."
Which means the money is more important than fixing anything. A business that couldn't afford to become ADA-compliant can definitely not afford to fix it after paying a settlement. And it's very well possible that money that could have gone into fixing the problem for all future disabled customers (surely the actual point of the law) is instead going to attorneys and plaintiffs.
Bottomline: no one comes out looking good in this particular case. If this cafe's ADA retrofit is going to cost $100k then it wasn't an easy fix and the business owner should have done better research into the law before renting/buying that location.
But there also seems to be a non-zero number of BS lawsuits incentivized by the way the law is right now.