“Jaewoo Jang had owned Granny’s Deli in Santa Ana less than 10 months when he was slapped with a lawsuit claiming that he violated the rights of disabled people.

He soon learned that 40 other lawsuits had been filed against 111 other small businesses and landlords in the Santa Ana area from Aug. 25 to Oct. 8, 2008. In every case, San Diego resident Noni Gotti was the plaintiff and the San Diego law firm of Pinnock &Wakefield was her attorney.”

“California has a small band of disabled plaintiffs and law firms who have filed thousands of lawsuits, usually a large number at a time, usually seeking cash payments to avoid costly trials. The state has been more generous to plaintiffs than the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

In the Granny’s lawsuit, Gotti alleged the sandwich shop had unsecured floor mats and barriers that preclude wheelchair access and sought $4,000 per offense, general damages, attorney’s fees and treble punitive damages for the claim that defendants knew of the problems and didn’t fix them.

The serial plaintiffs are unapologetic; casting themselves as crusaders doing the enforcement that government isn’t willing to do.

Gandhi said business owners can learn a couple of lessons from the Granny’s Deli case:

• If wrongly accused, the business owners have to challenge the serial plaintiffs. “Every case that gets settled for cash just encourages them to file more.”
• “Businesses have a legitimate business reason to comply with the ADA and related laws. The disabled customer’s money is as good as any other customer’s.”

Source: OC Register (Lawsuit Dropped), OC Register (Original Lawsuit Article)

In the case of an ADA lawsuit, knowing what claims are legitimate and which are frivolous is absolutely essential to win your case. In some cases, you may be able to get the plaintiff to drop the case, particularly if they think they won’t be able to win in court. In the case of a legitimate lawsuit, we can help you correct the accessibility barriers in question, and any others that you may not have been aware of, to avoid problems for your disabled clients in the future.

If you are concerned about your business’s accessibility, or are involved in an ADA lawsuit, YTA can help. E-mail us at help@ytaccess.com or call us today at 1-866-982-3212.

“As a result of all the legal fees associated with the lawsuit, we had no choice but to close the facility,” says Crystal Chodes, former marketing director for Basketball Town, a special events facility for basketball, volleyball, and other sporting events for children and families.

Basketball Town was forced to close because it could not afford the legal fees required to fight a lawsuit brought by a family member of a guest at a child’s birthday party hosted at the facility.

The facility hosted parties in two areas, one of which was on a mezzanine level.

“He invited one of his friends and that friend brought his uncle, who is in a wheelchair,” says Crystal. “Once we found out through the family that one of the guests expected was in a wheelchair, we actually offered to move the party downstairs and they declined. As a result, months later we were served with a lawsuit.”

Despite the lawsuit, the facility contended that it was, in fact, in compliance with the law regulating handicapped access for its patrons.

But compliance didn’t matter when the cost to defend oneself against a lawsuit overwhelmed the company’s bottom line. Basketball Town was forced to close its doors. The closure also came at a cost to the small business on the premises.

“There was a family pizzeria here and they had invested all of their money into this, they had their family involved in it, and now the facility’s closed,” says Crystal. “They have two kids that they’ve got to put through college. Just a small business, a great family, and they have lost everything – they’re starting over.”

She says: “If it can close an entire facility that’s meant to benefit children and families, it can hurt anyone. And that has to stop.”

Editor’s Note: California Senate Bill 1608 now provides a mandatory mediation alternative to litigation (with certain pre-conditions) to help prevent this exact thing from happening to other businesses.

Link: Faces of Lawsuit Abuse (with video)
Credits: Overlawyered.com

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Experts warned in a report Tuesday that the U.S. is largely unprepared for a coming explosion in its disabled population.

As many as 50 million Americans currently live with physical or mental impairments that prevent them from taking on regular work or life activities. But that number is expected to skyrocket as an aging population and rising obesity rates take their toll on Americans, concludes a report issued by a panel at the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

“It becomes quite clear that disability will essentially affect the lives of most Americans,” says Alan M. Jette, the panel’s chairman.

The number of elderly Americans is projected to double by 2030, a factor nearly guaranteed to push up the disabled population, the report says. Still, obesity lingers as another factor that experts says has them worried.

Link to full article: U.S. Not Ready for Rise in Disabled

Sources: Institute of Medicine: “The Future of Disability in America,” April 24, 2007. Alan M. Jette, director, Health and Disability Research Institute at Boston University; chairman, IOM panel.  Lisa I. Lezzoni, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School Institute for Health Policy; member, IOM panel. National Center for Health Statistics.

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“An attorney who has filed nearly 1,500 federal lawsuits in California since 1993 and dozens more in the county since 2004 to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act has set his sights on South County.

“Attorney Theodore Pinnock has filed lawsuits against more than 60 businesses in National City, Chula Vista and several south San Diego communities, claiming people with disabilities were denied access. The 1991 federal ADA law ensures them access to public places and businesses.

“In San Ysidro, the business owners are fighting back. They’ve hired an attorney to challenge Pinnock’s claims. He has sued a number of stores in an older commercial district and at the Las Americas outlet center.

“On Thursday, Pinnock said he files multiple lawsuits in one area to get other businesses motivated to follow ADA rules. He said the government doesn’t do anything and businesses won’t do it on their own.”

Link: San Diego Union Tribune

“In the past few months, a rash of ADA accessibility lawsuits has descended on neighborhoods across San Francisco from North Beach to Clement Street, from Polk Street to Geary Boulevard, enraging many local merchants and neighborhood advocates.

“Along with XOX Truffles, at least six other businesses on the same block of Columbus Avenue have been served, including Sushi on North Beach, Italian restaurant Da Flora and the sandwich shop Petite Deli. Last week Ricos, a burrito joint on the same the street, received their summons.

“On Polk Street, Teresa Nittolo, owner of the gift store Molte Cose, said that about ten of the neighboring stores along with her own have been sued.

“Many of these suits have been filed by one of a handful of disabled plaintiffs who are represented by Thomas Frankovich, one of the best known and most controversial ADA accessibility lawyers in California.

“Frankovich told me he doesn’t keep count but he guesses that he’s filed between 1,500 and 1,800 ADA accessibility lawsuits since 1994 and he currently has about 50 active ADA suits in San Francisco. Last year, he was the subject of a San Francisco Weekly cover story “Wheelchairs of Fortune,” detailing his multi-million dollar business in ADA suits. In 2006 he was suspended from filing any more cases in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for six months after a judge ruled him a vexatious litigant.”

Link: San Francisco Chronicle

“”He’s what we like to call a professional plaintiff,” says lawyer Joe Fields, who has represented many of the business owners and views Fox’s activities as more of a shakedown than a humanitarian campaign.

“After six years and 139 lawsuits, Fox isn’t surprised – or dismayed – by such assertions.

“”I have no problem being accused of being a professional whatever,” says Fox, whose childhood polio returned to put him in a wheelchair about 10 years ago. “I do this because I don’t want the disabled people who come after me to go through what I’ve had to go through.”

“The former Riviera Beach city councilman is far from alone. But while most of the thousands of other Americans With Disabilities Act lawsuits filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida are on behalf of people associated with disabled advocacy groups, Fox flies solo.

“”I don’t like bureaucracy,” he says with a shrug.

“When he visits a car dealership, restaurant, gas station or shopping center that doesn’t have enough handicapped parking spaces or grab bars in the bathrooms, where counters are too high, doors are too narrow or other obstacles to the disabled are found, he gives [his lawyer] a call.”

Link: The Palm Beach Post

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“With all the deviants running around these days, you can only imagine what could happen in an Orange County public restroom. David Allen Gunther, a fellow who knows depravity well, said he was traumatized by his Nov. 11, 2003, experience at the Anaheim West Car Wash. Gunther, who is wheelchair-bound, found a bathroom mirror mounted a few inches too high for him to “preen” himself. In a legal complaint, he insisted the experience caused him “anguish, anxiety, humiliation, anger, frustration, distress, embarrassment, apprehension and disgust.” He demanded that the owner of the business pay him $4,000. Would you believe that Gunther has the law on his side?

“Slouched in his custom-made wheelchair at his daily hangout—a Garden Grove Starbucks—Gunther doesn’t look capable of throwing Southern California business owners into a panic. But he has. He’d left his usual head attire, an oily baseball cap, at home and instead had showered, combed his hair and worn a clean shirt for the interview. He’s got large brown eyes, a Johnny Cash face much older than his 43 years and delivers mostly clipped answers in a raspy cigarette voice. He’s wearing shorts today; gruesome scars mark his right leg. Appearances are critical, and on this late September afternoon, Gunther is angry that people don’t see him as a hero.”

Link: Orange County Weekly

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