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Could you clarify how these shakedowns are performed? Are the victims non compliant with some law?

by arjie 10y ago

jessaustin 10y ago
Typically the victims are low-margin businesses operating in old buildings that were designed long before ADA existed. These businesses may never have served a wheelchair-bound customer before, or if they did it was an ad hoc process. In other words, physically lifting a wheelchair over some stairs or just bringing the customer's purchases outside. That's fine for reasonable customers, but the wheelchair people involved in these lawsuits do not behave in reasonable fashion.
- wyldfire 10y ago
  They also exploit extremely subtle parts of ADA like specific requirements for signage. Those things are very easily remedied without the need for a suit.
- chimeracoder 10y ago
  > Typically the victims are low-margin businesses operating in old buildings that were designed long before ADA exited That's not really true. Under the ADA, buildings built before 1992 are generally not required to perform renovations for compliance unless they are already performing renovations, at which point they are required to adherence to the requirements. And the amount that they are required to spend on compliance is a function of the amount that they are spending on the other renovations. It's actually more complicated than that, because there are two sets of requirements (1993 and 2010), with different safe harbor provisions for each, and renovations to old buildings may or may not invalidate the 1993 safe harbor, but that's the general idea.
- al2o3cr 10y ago
  There are plenty of "reasonable gentlemen" running "family businesses" who'd be interested in your "if you've been breaking the law for 25 years you can keep doing it" plan.
mcherm 10y ago
The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requires that businesses take appropriate steps to make services available to those with disabilities. They can be sued by private citizens who attempt to utilize their services but are unable. So you get lawyers who partner up with someone with a disability and go around suing businesses because they had a wheelchair ramp but it was 1 inch more narrow than the local code calls for.

Could you clarify how these shakedowns are performed? Are the victims non compliant with some law?

by arjie 10y ago

Could you clarify how these shakedowns are performed? Are the victims non compliant with some law?

Typically the victims are low-margin businesses operating in old buildings that were designed long before ADA existed. These businesses may never have served a wheelchair-bound customer before, or if they did it was an ad hoc process. In other words, physically lifting a wheelchair over some stairs or just bringing the customer's purchases outside. That's fine for reasonable customers, but the wheelchair people involved in these lawsuits do not behave in reasonable fashion.

wyldfire 10y ago
They also exploit extremely subtle parts of ADA like specific requirements for signage. Those things are very easily remedied without the need for a suit.
chimeracoder 10y ago
> Typically the victims are low-margin businesses operating in old buildings that were designed long before ADA exited That's not really true. Under the ADA, buildings built before 1992 are generally not required to perform renovations for compliance unless they are already performing renovations, at which point they are required to adherence to the requirements. And the amount that they are required to spend on compliance is a function of the amount that they are spending on the other renovations. It's actually more complicated than that, because there are two sets of requirements (1993 and 2010), with different safe harbor provisions for each, and renovations to old buildings may or may not invalidate the 1993 safe harbor, but that's the general idea.
al2o3cr 10y ago
There are plenty of "reasonable gentlemen" running "family businesses" who'd be interested in your "if you've been breaking the law for 25 years you can keep doing it" plan.

mcherm 10y ago

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requires that businesses take appropriate steps to make services available to those with disabilities. They can be sued by private citizens who attempt to utilize their services but are unable. So you get lawyers who partner up with someone with a disability and go around suing businesses because they had a wheelchair ramp but it was 1 inch more narrow than the local code calls for.