Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘disabled rights’

Blawg Review #11

…is now up, hosted by Al Nye the Lawyer Guy. Our post on the hapless Virginia couple who served liquor to their son’s friends comes in for a link, and the host has some very kind things to say about this site and about my book The Rule of Lawyers (which — have I mentioned? — makes a great gift for graduates, or belated Father’s Day offering).

Other highlights of the review: George Lenard discusses a Seventh Circuit ruling that the MMPI, a standard personality test, counts as a “medical examination” which when administered by an employer to applicants before a job offer is made triggers the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and Carolyn Elefant offers advice on how to benefit from blogs without spending a whole lot of time on them.

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ADA and cruise ships

Do you run a cruise ship that may stop at an American port of call, in addition to those of a dozen other countries? Then you may have to retrofit your vessel in various ways to comply with the consumer-accommodation requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Or such is the apparent implication of a U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down Jun. 6. Three Justices dissented. (Spector et al. v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd., opinion courtesy FindLaw; Brian Doherty, “Sea of Litigation”, Reason, June; Pat Cleary, NAM Blog, Jun. 6; Georgetown Law webcast). See Mar. 2.

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ADA filing mills

Seems they’ve now arrived in Sacramento and nearby Solano County: Ron Wilson and Byron Chapman, who say they’re disability rights activists, “together have filed more than 100 ADA lawsuits in Sacramento federal court in just the past four years. In some cases, the lawsuits come without warning.” “The number he quoted to me was $75 an hour, he’ll do the consulting,” said Vacaville businessman Tom Phillippi, of Wilson. “You pay him $75 an hour as a consultant and you won’t necessarily face him in court.” (“Businesses Come Together To Fight Disabled Lawsuit Abuse”, KXTV, Mar. 8). For more, see Mar. 18 and many other posts linked from there.

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Disabled docs’ demands

Gail Heriot (May 3), Erin O’Connor (Apr. 30), and Martin Grace (May 2) all comment on the case of Heidi Baer of Quincy, Mass., who having failed the medical boards three times is now suing the National Board of Medical Examiners under the Americans with Disabilities Act for not giving her extra time on the exam to accommodate her dyslexia. (J.M. Lawrence, “Med student’s dyslexia plea: I need time to pursue dream”, Boston Herald, Apr. 30). For more on ADA and test accommodation, see Jul. 21, 2004, Nov. 13, 2003 and links from there. In Connecticut, meanwhile, Dr. Benjamin Smith is seeking $2.5 million from Norwalk Hospital over alleged overwork and failure to accommodate his attention deficit disorder (ADD). The two sides dispute whether Smith was made to work beyond the 80-hour maximum that is supposed to be placed on residents’ workloads; Dr. Eric M. Mazur, chairman of the hospital’s internal medicine department, denies that the institution was insensitive to Dr. Smith’s needs, saying it “rearranged some of his schedules, reduced his patient load and put him on days instead of nights” and wound up terminating him for performance. He added what must count as one of the strongly worded statements of its kind we’ve seen in a while:

“The medical establishment is often accused of not policing itself, and not clearing out bad apples,” Mazur said. “It was the consensus of the faculty that his continued employment would endanger patient care.”

(Marian Gail Brown, “Doc asks $2m for overwork”, Connecticut Post, Apr. 21)(& welcome Grand Rounds XXXVI readers).

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“Skate park told comply or close”

A group of volunteer parents and teens built the Uncle Bud Skate Park in downtown Marshfield, Massachusetts over the last five years, but the state Office on Disability is threatening to order the park closed to the public because the park does not meet accessibility requirements. (The park does contain an ampitheater, so it’s not just an issue of accommodating disabled roller-bladers.) So far Public Works Superintendent R. Jeb DeLoach has responded in Harrison Bergeron fashion, by removing a bench and a portable toilet that was not handicapped accessible. (Needless to say, this does not make the park any friendlier to the handicapped, but rather makes it equally unfriendly to the non-disabled.) There’s still an issue because only one of the three entrances to the park is accessible; compliance costs for this and other violations will raise the cost of the park 25%. (Shamus McGillicuddy, Patriot-Ledger, Apr. 12) (via Newman, who asks, “[I]f you hated the handicapped and wanted to hatch a plot that would cause children and their families to resent them, could you really do better than this?”). For the tale of the wheelchair ramp in the mountains, see Jul. 9, 2003.

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Update: “Apprentice” suit settles

Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice has settled a discrimination suit brought by a disabled attorney in February (see Feb. 10). The producers will pay out no money, but “the online application for potential Apprentice contestants has been changed to encourage the disabled to apply”. (Charlie Amter, “‘Apprentice’ Discrimination Suit Settled”, EOnline, Mar. 9)(via George Lenard).

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ADA filing mills: “drive-by lawsuits”

AP reports on the thriving business of mass-complaint-filing under the Americans with Disabilities Act, citing examples from Nebraska and Oklahoma as well as more familiar filing-mill locales such as California and Florida. As in the recent California case, however (Jan. 8), some judges are not pleased at what they see:

U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell of Orlando, Fla., noted in a ruling last year that Jorge Luis Rodriguez, a paraplegic, had filed some 200 ADA lawsuits in just a few years, most of them using the same attorney.

“The current ADA lawsuit binge is, therefore, essentially driven by economics — that is the economics of attorney’s fees,” Presnell wrote. He said Rodriguez’s testimony left the impression that he is a “professional pawn in a scheme to bilk attorney’s fees” from those being sued.

(Kevin O’Hanlon, “‘Drive-By Lawsuits’ Raise Business Concern”, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 17).

Speaking of the California saga of Jarek Molski (Sept. 21, Nov. 27, Dec. 12, Jan. 8), last month U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie extended from Molski to his lawyer, Thomas Frankovich, a requirement to obtain court permission before filing more suits under the act, a sanction ordinarily reserved for the most vexatious and troublesome litigants. Reports the Los Angeles Daily Journal:

The Los Angeles judge accused Molski and Frankovich of seeking quick cash settlements by filing a suspicious number of lawsuits in short periods of time. Their suits alleged handicap-access violations such as steep ramps, heavy doors and narrow hallways.

Rafeedie noted that the complaints are identical, right “down to the typos.” He said he believed the injuries alleged by Molski “are often contrived.”…

Rafeedie criticized at length Frankovich’s practice of sending letters to defendant business owners at the outset of litigation, urging them to settle the cases before hiring defense lawyers.

According to Rafeedie, Frankovich told the defendants that they did not have good legal defenses to the disability claims and that their insurance carriers could cover any damages.

Rafeedie said the letters were unethical and misleading.

However, Molski and Frankovich’s side of the case has retained prominent civil-rights attorney Stephen Yagman, and Yagman says well-known Duke lawprof Erwin Chemerinsky is also joining the plaintiff’s team, so who knows where matters are headed next. (John Ryan, “Jurist Finds Lawyer’s Conduct ‘Plainly Unethical'”, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Feb. 8, not online). More: blogger Patterico is among Yagman’s non-admirers (Jun. 3, 2004).

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“Disabled golfer files complaint”

Says Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Tuscaloosa won’t provide free golf carts. (Stephanie Taylor, Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 15). The National Golf Course Owners Association maintains a page on ADA issues and compliance. At Cybergolf, Jeffrey D. Brauer (“Must golf courses accommodate wheelchair golfers?”, undated) discusses the impact of wheelchair-access regulation on golf course design: “The golf industry at first feared that ADA might outlaw contoured greens and fairways, and possibly sand bunkers, to achieve disabled access. Future rules revisions may eventually eliminate features like ‘perched’ greens and steep banks, but for now, traditional golf course architecture is not compromised by the guidelines.” And federal prescriptions on the design of miniature golf courses can be found here.

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