Overlawyered » ADA filing mills

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:03 +0000

On party-line vote, Sacramento Dems turn down bill to curb ADA access shakedown suits [ATRF, KABC, Sacramento Bee (auto-plays video ad)]
Illinois sues local schools for not developing standards for disabled athletic competition [Chicago Tribune]
Open secret: criminals exploit federally mandated IP Relay disabled-phone system [Henderson]
Judge certifies nationwide ADA accessibility suit against Hollister over stepped entrances to its stores [Law Week Colorado via Disability Law]
In settlement, AMC movie chain agrees to install captioning, audio-description at Illinois theaters [ABC Chicago]
“Has the Expanded Definition of Disability under the ADAA Gone Too Far?” [Russell Cawyer]
“Fake handicaps a growing problem for disabled sports” [Der Spiegel]

Tags: ADA filing mills, disability & schools, disabled rights, Illinois, movies film and videos, sports, telecommunications

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The Times covers ADA filing mills

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:27:45 +0000

Although you might say they’re a little late to this story, it’s still a welcome development. I discuss the piece and its background in a new Cato post (& welcome Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit readers). Hans Bader and Jacob Sullum also weigh in.

While we’re at it, here are some more links not yet blogged in this space on this busy extraction industry: Hackensack, N.J. has its own serial ADA filer [Bergen Record; letter from Marcus Rayner, NJLRA]. California small businesses continue their protests [Lodi News-Sentinel, background on George Louie; ABC L.A. (Alfredo Garcia, who's filed hundreds of ADA suits, described as "illegal immigrant and convicted felon"; background on his attorney, Overlawyered favorite Morse Mehrban)] And in case you were wondering about the enabling role of the courts, here’s a recent Ninth Circuit decision ruling it an abuse of discretion for a trial court to have cut a lawyer’s fee award in an ADA barrier case [Bagenstos, Disability Law] Much more at our ADA filing mills tag.

Tags: ADA filing mills, California, New Jersey, Ninth Circuit

The Times covers ADA filing mills is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feinstein: California needs to crack down on ADA access-suit mills

Walter Olson — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:40:52 +0000

“In a March 8 letter to fellow Democrat and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Feinstein accused plaintiffs lawyers of coercing business owners into paying five-figure settlements by threatening potentially costlier lawsuits targeting minor violations under the state’s access and civil rights laws.” Democrats in Sacramento have thus far tended to back the interests of the state’s very active ADA-mill legal sector. [The Recorder/Law.com]

More: Good column from Andrew Rose at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tags: ADA filing mills, California

Feinstein: California needs to crack down on ADA access-suit mills is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:32:11 +0000

Part III of Radley Balko series on painkiller access [HuffPo]
“Note: Add ‘Judge’s Nameplate’ to List of Things Not to Steal” [Lowering the Bar]
California’s business-hostile climate: if the ADA mills don’t get you, other suits might [CACALA]
Bottom story of the month: ABA president backs higher legal services budget [ABA Journal]
After string of courtroom defeats, Teva pays to settle Nevada propofol cases [Oliver, earlier]
Voting Rights Act has outstayed its constitutional welcome [Ilya Shapiro/Cato] More: Stuart Taylor, Jr./The Atlantic.
Huge bust of what NY authorities say was $279 million crash-fraud ring NY Post, NYLJ, Business Insider, Turkewitz (go after dishonest docs on both sides)]

Tags: ADA filing mills, bar associations, California, crash faking, insurance fraud, legal services programs, New York, pharmaceuticals, Voting Rights Act

March 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Regulated if you do, sued if you don’t

Walter Olson — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:25:08 +0000

The Lookout News of Santa Monica, Calif. reports on obstacles to the revitalization of the Pico Boulevard commercial district:

“Businesses on Pico have been very frustrated by code compliance regulations for years,” [Pico Improvement Organization chairman Robert] Kronovet said. “You have a business that might have a sign in the wrong place or a door that isn’t right and the city fines them to the point that they don’t want to stay.

“These are small businesses. They don’t have the money to fight it.”…

Proprietor Elvira Garcia [of Caribbean restaurant Cha Cha Chicken] says business has been terrific, but that the success has been hard-won.

“We wanted to renovate our bathroom areas to make it more handicap-accessible and it took us almost three years to get all the permits,” Garcia said.

“We kept giving all the paperwork they need, but it took forever. We needed the Pico Improvement Organization to plead our case.”

California has the nation’s most active entrepreneurial corps of ADA enforcers, roaming business districts to file mass complaints against small businesses over handicap accessibility which they then settle for cash.

Tags: ADA filing mills, Los Angeles, small business

Regulated if you do, sued if you don’t is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:06:43 +0000

ADA mills continue to extract money from California small businesses with no legislative relief in sight [Auburn Journal, Andrew Ross/S.F. Chronicle, KABC (James Farkus Cohan), WTSP (Squeeze Inn owner speaks out), CJAC (Lungren proposal) and more, Chamber (San Francisco coffee shop's woes, auto-plays video)] Profile of attorney Thomas Frankovich [California Lawyer];
EEOC sues employer for turning away job applicant on methadone program [Jon Hyman]
“Maryland high court: allergy is disability requiring accommodation” [PoL]
“Suits could force L.A. to spend huge sums on sidewalk repair” [Los Angeles Times]
Under gun from Department of Justice and SCOTUS Olmstead ruling, Virginia and other states agree to massive overhaul of services for developmentally disabled; not all families, though, are happy with the insistence on relocating residents of large facilities to smaller “community” settings [Richmond Times-Dispatch, McDonnell press release, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Staunton News-Leader]
“New Case from W.D. Tex. Shows Effect of ADAAA on Back Injury Claims” [Disability Law]
Lawyer leads effort to give disabled passengers wider rights to sue airlines [Toledo Free Press]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, allergies, California, disabled rights, EEOC, illegal drugs, Los Angeles, Maryland, Virginia

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“ADA lawsuits questioned after serial plaintiff claiming emphysema caught on tape hiking”

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:18:47 +0000

James Farkus Cohan, who’s sued at least 161 businesses under California’s liberal version of the ADA as a disabled plaintiff, says he has end-stage emphysema, but a KABC investigation found him rather spry. Cohan’s other businesses, the station reports, include procurement of human organs for transplant. Lawmakers in Sacramento this year refused business pleas to tighten standards for filing the lucrative suits, which extract millions annually [via Lowering the Bar and Amy Alkon]

Tags: ADA filing mills

“ADA lawsuits questioned after serial plaintiff claiming emphysema caught on tape hiking” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

California: “Lawmakers kill fix for disability access suits”

Walter Olson — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 05:25:53 +0000

Democrats in Sacramento are unswayed by continuing reports that Unruh Act complaint mills are extracting millions from the state’s small businesses on accessibility claims, and throttle a bill that would require notice and a chance to fix problems before suing. [Legal Pad, The Recorder, CJAC] Opponents of the fix include the trial-lawyers’ lobby, Consumer Attorneys of California. Background here; the perennially doomed equivalent bill in the U.S. Congress is discussed here. I discussed the issue on the John Stossel show last year.

Tags: ADA filing mills, California

California: “Lawmakers kill fix for disability access suits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Disabled man puts the squeeze on [NYC] businesses with handicap lawsuits”

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:06:48 +0000

The New York Post profiles prolific ADA filer Zoltan Hirsch, who has targeted at least 87 businesses, and his lawyer, Bradley Weitz. “[Hirsch] targeted a pedicure station at the Red & White Spa in SoHo — even though he has no feet.”

Tags: ADA filing mills, NYC

“Disabled man puts the squeeze on [NYC] businesses with handicap lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Digging for ADA gold

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:05:14 +0000

Well-known serial ADA litigant George Louie has hit the California Gold Rush country [CJAC] Not that far away: “Serial ADA filer targets popular Davis burger joint” [same, Scott Johnson]

Tags: ADA filing mills, California, serial litigants

Digging for ADA gold is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system