Review of Disabled Persons Act Applicability to Websites Withdrawn; California Agency Issues Guidance on CASp Benefits; and Novel New Serial Lawsuits Filed Against Car Dealerships

By Kristina Launey

As we’ve discussed previously, California is a hotbed for disability access suits – both based upon alleged physical accessibility violations of California law and the ADA and based upon alleged inaccessible websites.  Three recent developments on this front merit mention:

First, the California Division of the State Architect recently posted useful information regarding its interpretation of why a business may want to hire a Certified Access Specialist to inspect and certify a property at: Why is it Beneficial to Hire a CASp? And Other Frequently Asked Questions.  The page explains the law in California which authorizes private plaintiffs to receive statutory damages of up to $4,000 per occurrence of violation as well as the legal benefits and protections a CASp consultant’s evaluation can provide a business when faced with such a lawsuit.

Second, we had expected some guidance from the California Supreme Court regarding whether the Disabled Persons Act applies to businesses’ websites after the Ninth Circuit in Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness et al. v. Cable News Network, Inc. certified the issue to that Court.  On October 10, the Ninth Circuit withdrew its request for review after GLAAD agreed to dismiss its action with prejudice in exchange for CNN’s promise not to seek attorneys’ fees and costs and CNN voluntarily dismissed its appeal in the Ninth Circuit.  Despite the lack of judicial and regulatory guidance, lawsuits, demand letters, and enforcement actions over alleged inaccessible websites continues.

Finally, in the category of what new serial lawsuit trend is hot in California right now, we’ve seen a wave of lawsuits filed against car dealerships by one firm in California alleging violations of law based upon the car dealerships’ failure to offer and refusal to install vehicle hand controls on vehicles for persons with disabilities to test drive the vehicles.

As always, we’ll continue to monitor disability access developments in California and nationwide to keep you up to date.

Edited by Minh Vu