“I have no problem being accused of being a professional whatever,” says Allen Fox, who’s filed 139 disabled-accessibility lawsuits over six years in concert with attorney Samuel Aurelio, as many as eight of the similarly worded complaints in a day. Most of the complaints result in the payment of legal fees and Fox, of West Palm Beach, Fla., pays nothing on the rare occasions he loses.
Aurilio, who has filed 274 ADA cases in Florida, including Fox’s, laments that a few lawyers have given all of those who fight for the disabled a bad name. The poster child is a North Miami lawyer who in 2003 was sanctioned by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks for filing 13 lawsuits on behalf of a man he claimed was a quadriplegic who later walked in to give his deposition in one of the cases.
Not only was the man not disabled, he “did not know what a quadriplegic was, and when the term was explained to him, he was repulsed by the thought of being so incapacitated,” Middlebrooks wrote in a blistering 18-page order sanctioning lawyer Lawrence Fuller.
Fuller was also admonished by the Florida Bar; by one estimate, he’d taken in $3 million in his ADA practice by that point. (Jane Musgrave, “‘Pro Plaintiff’ Crusades for Disabled Access”, Palm Beach Post/Lakeland Ledger, May 12).
One Comment
This man filed his ADA case without an attorney. Is this a good idea?
Disabled man sues city over access to sidewalks and bicycle paths
MIAMI — Theo Karantsalis, a librarian who suffers from multiple sclerosis, filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami Springs, Miami-Dade County, and the Florida Department of Transportation seeking equal access to area sidewalks and bicycle paths. The case was filed on Sept. 22, 2008, in United States District Court, Southern District of Florida.
Karantsalis alleges that he is being “denied full, safe and equal access” to Miami Springs’ “roads, sidewalks and bicycle paths” in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. Karantsalis brought this to the attention of city, county, and state officials on Dec. 22, 2007, when he filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Dept. requesting that the city ensure “that individuals with disabilities receive equal access to its benefits or services.”
In the complaint, Karantsalis said that if he wasn’t able to resolve this matter with the city, then he would bring a lawsuit to enforce his rights under Title II of the ADA. Karantsalis said he made repeated efforts to resolve this dispute without litigation.
“With regard to the city, I have phoned, e-mailed, visited, uploaded videos, and appeared at council meetings to point out ADA violations,” said Karantsalis. “It’s obvious the city wasn’t interested in complying with the Act.”
Karantsalis is an MS Activist with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Karantsalis is also a Miami-Dade County Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee member who identifies opportunities, recommends projects and provides input on projects that affect people who walk or ride their bike, in order to make bicycling and walking safe methods of transportation and recreation in Miami-Dade County.
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