As noted during our Healthcare webinar last week, the accessibility of drug labels accessible is on the Administration’s agenda. Yesterday the Access Board announced that the stakeholder working group it organized to develop best practices for making drug labels accessible will hold its first public meeting January 10 and 11 in Washington, D.C., to explore best
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NYC Taxis Must Be Accessible to the Blind By May 1, 2013
By On November 27, 2012, the New York City Council passed legislation known as Introduction 599, which will require the City’s taxi cabs be accessible to people who are blind or have low vision by May 1, 2013. Among the requirements Introduction 599 imposes on taxis are:
– Implementation of payment technology to announce the fare
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Minh Vu Shares Thoughts on How The Presidential Election Could Affect Pending ADA Regulations on Law360
Minh Vu, Seyfarth Shaw’s ADA Title III Team Leader and a Department of Justice veteran, provided insights for Law360’s Expert Analysis column today on how a Romney victory tomorrow might impact important pending disability access regulations that would cover the websites, equipment, and furniture of public accommodations. Click here to see this article.
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ADA Plaintiff’s Efforts to Block Barrier Removal During Lawsuit Deemed “Frivolous on Many Levels”
The only remedies available under Title III of the ADA are injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees and costs. Consequently, a defendant who undertakes remedial efforts mid-stream in litigation to eliminate ADA violations can render the plaintiff’s ADA claim moot. The defendant in Sandi Rush v. Islands Restaurants, LP, Southern District of California Case No. 3:11-cv-01312-LAB-DHB did
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Netflix Settles Massachusetts Web Video Captioning Action
On October 9, 2012, Netflix entered into a consent decree with National Association of the Deaf (“NAD”), to resolve the Massachusetts District Court case in which NAD and Lee Nettles alleged Netflix violated Title III of the ADA by failing to provide adequate closed captioning on its “Watch Instantly” web only video streaming service. This consent
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Tables Turned: Serial ADA Plaintiff Named Defendant in Sexual Harassment Case
Scott Johnson, a prolific pro se serial plaintiff and attorney in California, is now himself a defendant in a suit brought by four former female legal assistants, which contains detailed allegations of sexually harassing conduct by Johnson in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. From an ADA Title III perspective, the complaint is most interesting
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North Carolina Courts Not Receptive to Serial Plaintiffs’ Lawsuits
In the past 3 months, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has dismissed no fewer than 8 cases brought by Denise Payne and the National Alliance for Accessibility, Inc., an organization that Ms. Payne co-founded. Ms. Payne and her organization sued at least 84 businesses in this judicial district based on a
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Missouri Federal Court Orders Serial ADA Plaintiff to Pay Defense Fees for Filing Frivolous Lawsuits
United States District Judge Richard Dorr of the Western District of Missouri recently ordered plaintiff Connie Steelman (Plaintiff) to pay the defendants’ attorney’s fees for filing “groundless complaints” in 12 lawsuits against different businesses in which she alleged ADA Title III violations. Plaintiff had filed nearly 70 ADA Title III lawsuits in Missouri and Florida in
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Disability Access Reform in California, Finally
Yesterday Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 1186, which will reform California’s disability access laws by, among other things, reducing statutory damages to $1,000 or $2,000 provided certain conditions are met. See our prior discussion of the legislation here.
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Justice Department Joins Plaintiffs in Alleging ADA Violations by Law School Admission Council
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) moved this week to intervene in a class action lawsuit brought against the administrators of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), alleging “widespread and systemic deficiencies” in the way that testing accommodation requests are processed.
The underlying suit, which was initiated in April by the California Department of Fair Employment
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