Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit holds that the ADA does not require a 36 inch length of clear sales counter space when the entire counter provided for all customers is at an accessible height.
When a business provides only one sales counter for all customers to use and that entire counter is at an accessible height of 36 inches or
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Rejects Serial Plaintiffs’ Lawsuits About the ADA’s Accessible Sales Counter Requirements
By Kevin Fritz
We recently came across a news story that inspired us to draft this post: A Wisconsin woman and a kangaroo enter a restaurant. (If that isn’t a great joke intro, we don’t know what is.) Another customer calls the police to report the animal, but the woman claims that her kangaroo is a service animal and produces
Continue Reading Is a Kangaroo a Service Animal? It Depends on Where you Are and What the Animal Does
By John W. Egan
Despite the url (www.adatitleiii.com) and frequent federal focus of this blog, it is important to remember that many states and municipalities have their own disability access laws and regulations with which businesses must comply. Although many state and local requirements are similar to the ADA, this is not always the case.
Usually we’re reporting
Continue Reading New York Law Creates Quandary for Businesses with New “Accessible Icon”
By Minh N. Vu
Serial ADA Title III lawsuit filer Howard Cohan made local television news last week in a story CBS Action News 47 reported after Mr. Cohan filed 24 new lawsuits against various north Florida hotels. Seyfarth Shaw’s Title III Team has handled a number of cases filed by Mr. Cohan. Our search of the federal court docket
Continue Reading Serial ADA Plaintiff Makes Florida News
By Kevin Fritz and Kylie Byron
If you’ve visited a shopping mall in America, you’ve probably seen the characteristic design of the Hollister Co. clothing stores. About 249 of the stores have a roofed porch-like entrance, with steps leading up onto the porch from the mall area and steps leading down from the elevated porch into the store interior. Flanking
Continue Reading Tenth Circuit Rejects DOJ and Advocacy Group’s Attempt to Inject Unstated Requirements Into ADA Standards for Accessible Design
Our own Minh Vu was interviewed for this article about the state of compliance with the new pool lift requirements at hotels and how serial plaintiffs have capitalized on the rules to file more lawsuits. Minh served as counsel to the American Hotel & Lodging Association in its successful effort to obtain a nine month extension of the pool lift
Continue Reading Seyfarth’s Minh Vu Provides Insight into Pool Lifts Suits For Hotel News Now
By: Kevin A. Fritz
The Department of Justice recently issued a final rule increasing — due to inflation adjustment — the civil monetary penalties that a court can impose on a public accommodation in an enforcement action brought by the Attorney General under Title III of the ADA. The amounts of adjustments are determined according to a formula set forth
Continue Reading Justice Department Increases ADA Title III Monetary Penalties
NBC Bay Area recently aired a report by Vicky Nguyen, Jeremy Carroll and Kevin Nious, analyzing federal lawsuits that alleged ADA violations, calling it “legalized extortion.” NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Team found from the more than 10,0000 ADA lawsuits it reviewed that had been filed in the five states with the highest disabled populations (California, Texas,
Continue Reading NBC Investigative Team Reports California Outpaces Other States in ADA Lawsuits
By Minh N. Vu and Kristina M. Launey
Now that we are all back in work mode, we thought it would be useful to take a quick look at some of the major ADA Title III trends and highlights of 2013 and how they will impact the coming year.
Digital Accessibility. We saw a definitive uptick in the number of
Continue Reading THE ADA TITLE III YEAR IN REVIEW: Trends, Hot Topics, and What's In Store for 2014
By: Mary Kay Klimesh
On November 7, 2013, from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. (ET), the U.S. Access Board will hold a webinar addressing accessible surfaces for playgrounds. The Access Board has developed accessibility guidelines (available at http://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/recreation-facilities/guides) for newly constructed and altered play areas. During this webinar, Access Board staff and a representative from the National Center on Accessibility
Continue Reading U.S. Access Board to Hold Webinar on Accessible Playground Surfaces
