The Americans with Disabilities Act has come under threat from “drive-by lawsuits,” that “target mom-and-pop shops searching for any sign of noncompliance,” former Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today on Monday.
The Utah Republican, who went across the aisle to work with Democrats to pass the ADA about 30 years ago, wrote about the importance of securing the law’s “legacy for the next 30 years. This will require nurturing the partnership between business owners and persons with disabilities that helped lift the ADA across the finish line.”
Hatch writes that “the rise of ‘drive-by lawsuits,’ in which an individual enters a place of business not looking to buy but to sue,” and will consider “even the most minor (and often unintended) infractions are grounds for a lawsuit — from an access ramp that is just a few inches off to a sign that uses the wrong font-size.”
He adds, “Sadly, this form of legal predation is only growing more prevalent. In the last decade, litigators have become increasingly aggressive in their willingness to go after unwitting business owners in what often amounts to little more than a legal shakedown.”
Hatch notes that last year, over 11,000 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal court, more than twice the number filed in 2015.
“The purpose of the ADA is to bring persons with disabilities into the economy — not to destroy the businesses they would go to in the first place. In this regard, drive-by lawsuits violate the spirit of the ADA. Worse still, they pit the disability and business communities against each other, threatening to undermine the partnership that has made the law so successful. That’s why curbing excessive litigation is key to securing the legacy of the ADA.”
Hatch suggests “a potential solution: allowing businesses a brief grace period to correct accessibility violations before lawyers can bring suit.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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