# The ADA Lawsuit Contagion Sweeping U.S. States



## mark handler (Dec 23, 2016)

The ADA Lawsuit Contagion Sweeping U.S. States
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspi...t-contagion-sweeping-u-s-states/#30697d1a79ff
Abusive lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) have spread across the country like an infectious disease plaguing small and micro businesses. Although California remains patient zero where the disease constantly mutates, small businesses in Florida, Texas, New York and states in between are now suffering from ADA lawsuit contagion.

The ADA is a phenomenal law, which has opened doors (literally) for persons living with disabilities. Yet, there is a relentless group of personal injury lawyers who view the ADA not as a key to access for those with disabilities, but a tool to line their pockets at the expense of well-meaning small businesses.

ADA lawsuits follow a fairly standard formula. For example, if a sign is slightly askew, a door handle misaligned by 3/8th of an inch, or a disabled parking sign doesn’t properly note the exact amount of a potential parking violation, and a plaintiff’s attorney brings suit, the business pays an average of $16,000 cash. The reason why this is a forced, extorted settlement, is because the cost of fighting the allegation is typically four to five times the average $75,000 in annual income generated by the business. And the trial lawyers know this.

While the stories of ADA lawsuit abuse were once anecdotal in nature, this extortion scheme is now a perfected business plan executed by unethical attorneys. California, home to more than 40% of ADA access lawsuits filed nationwide, has long led the nation in attacks on small business owners. Working out of the cities of San Jose and Fresno, the California-based Moore Law Firm is the embodiment of this type of lawsuit abuse. Over the past few years, they have filed more than 700 lawsuits alleging violations of the ADA, quickly followed by leveraged settlements, and in some cases, bankruptcy by the business. Recently however, they have found the tables turned on them.

In documents filed in state court claiming fraud, details of ADA lawsuit abuse were uncovered. The firm allegedly recruits plaintiffs who suffer both physical and mental disabilities, to act as the injured party of their frivolous lawsuit in exchange for a small portion of the settlement. This came to light as the plaintiffs say they are still owed payouts from numerous settled lawsuits.

Now, faced with the potential of California’s legal gold mine drying up from pending and recently passed legislation, trial lawyers are rushing east to Texas, New York and Florida. Austin experienced an explosion of ADA related lawsuits in 2015, with one attorney filing 25 in a single week. Similar to California, lawsuits in Austin often feature batches of claims from the same plaintiff and attorney. This "lawsuit mill" approach, dozens of cookie-cutter lawsuits with similar language from one firm, is how New York City is being attacked by both out-of-state and in-state lawyers.

Down in the Sunshine State of Florida, lawsuit mills like those in California are churning out up to 20 lawsuits per day. The lawsuits are concentrated in the South Florida counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami Dade, where a number of serial filers have been targeting locally owned businesses with allegations of ADA violations. These trends are even beginning to pick up in other states, such as Missouri, so it’s anyone’s guess how far this will go.

One thing is clear: The ADA lawsuit industry is no longer under the radar. With disabled plaintiffs fighting back against unscrupulous lawyers, and small businesses pushing for reform in state capitals, the political dynamics are shifting.

The California Legislature has passed modest ADA reform for a second time in as many years, and at the federal level, there is a bipartisan push to protect both consumers and small business. Two U.S. Representatives from California, Democrat Jerry McNerney and Republican Ken Calvert, have introduced federal legislation to combat job-killing ADA lawsuit abuses. The McNerney (H.R. 4719) and Calvert (H.R. 241) bills are commonsense measures, ones which would require notice and a right to cure before a lawsuit could be filed.

Whether these measures are enough to stop ADA contagion from further infecting our economy remains to be seen.


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## ADAguy (Dec 27, 2016)

As long as State Bars are allowed to self-control the practice of law this will continue.
Think a "Trump" appointee will change this?


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## conarb (Dec 27, 2016)

ADAguy said:


> As long as State Bars are allowed to self-control the practice of law this will continue.
> Think a "Trump" appointee will change this?


Whenever you have bad law you will have bad lawyers taking advantage of it, in this case attempts to fix it are just making it worse as CASps are profiting in addition to the lawyers.  A. G. Sessions should immediately wipe out all DOJ regulations and have a congressman introduce reasonable laws with his new regulations as mere interpretations of law.


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## north star (Dec 27, 2016)

*# ~ #*


One party of politicos can't even accept that Trump won the election.
Don't hold your collective breaths waiting for any reasonable,
common sense legislation to be submitted, to address the current
ADA landscape.


*# ~ #*


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## mark handler (Dec 27, 2016)

ADAguy said:


> Think a "Trump" appointee will change this?


No.
This was a Bipartisan law passed by congress, signed by a Republican President, and when amended by congress, amendments signed by  Another Republican President.


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## conarb (Dec 27, 2016)

mark handler said:


> No.
> This was a Bipartisan law passed by congress, signed by a Republican President, and when amended by congress, amendments signed by  Another Republican President.


It doesn't matter the political party of the Congress or Presidents, up until now they have been two sides of the same coin, both devotees of the New World Order, a world ruled by the United Nations, the law was signed by the first Bush and he made his *New World Order speech. *  The second George Bush also made a *New World Order speech*, as did the Democratic president *Barack Obama*. 

Disability rights are incorporated in the *United Nations Agenda 21*, that has now been modified to Agenda 2030 and Vision 2050.  This is the depopulation of the earth and one world government of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, this is also our  "sustainability" agenda, with some luck Trump might get us out of the Untied Nations so our wealth isn't redistributed to everyone in the world, John D Rockefeller, Jr¹ gave the land in New York City to the United Nations as part of the Rockefeller agenda, New Yorkers hate them because they take all parking spaces, don't pay tickets, etc., there are proposals to drive them out using the building codes, their headquarters is filled with asbestos, not compliant with today's ADA or structural requirements, the New York building department could condemn the buildings if they had the guts to do it.  We have fought 66 unconstitutional wars for the United Nations, we pay $3 billion a year of their $44 billion yearly budget.

¹ http://americanprofile.com/articles...donated-land-for-united-nations-headquarters/


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## ADAguy (Dec 28, 2016)

Have enough energy left in you to run for office? Biden/Conard 20'


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## CityKin (Dec 29, 2016)

We fought 66 unconstitutional wars?!? What?


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## ADAguy (Dec 29, 2016)

careful what you ask for, he'll tell you.


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## conarb (Dec 29, 2016)

CityKin said:


> We fought 66 unconstitutional wars?!? What?


The constitution (if that means anything anymore} requires congress to declare war, the last war congress declared was the war against Japan, congress would not declare war against Germany but Germany declared war against us because of their treaty with Japan and Congress finally passed a resolution stating that we "were in a state of war with Germany", all other wars have been unconstitutional, but somehow Presidents have waged them on the basis that our relationship with the United Nations allows us to wage war.  I've read the number 66 and have never read the verifications of it but it sounds about right, the big ones were Truman's Korea, Johnson's Vietnam, Clinton's Bosnia, Bush II's Afghanistan and Iraq, and Obama has broken all records with Iraq again, Afghanistan again, Libya, and Syria, this says nothing of Obama's "regime changes" where we covertly overthrow governments by advising and financing internal revolutions, which are civil wars like Egypt, Georgia, Ukraine, etc.  Bob Woodward (Deep Throat fame with Nixon) has written an excellent book on *Obama's Wars*.

The American Empire is supposedly conquering the world to turn all national sovereignty over to One World government under the United Nations, so we will all be "citizens of the world", to do this we need a unipolar world and that's what Vladimir Putin is trying to stop.  If you are interested in U.S. wars *Wikipedia* has lists of them by centuries.


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## ADAguy (Dec 29, 2016)

Told you so.


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