By Minh Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses get another win in a lawsuit demanding gift cards with Braille.
Yesterday, Magistrate Judge Stewart Aaron in the Southern District of New York issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that District Judge Gardephe grant Foot Locker’s motion to dismiss a boilerplate complaint in which the blind plaintiff alleged that the retailer had violated the
Continue Reading Another New York Judge Says the ADA Does Not Require Braille Gift Cards
Seyfarth Synopsis: Reopening businesses must quickly prepare for customers claiming the ADA exempts them from face mask requirements.
Business re-opening their doors to serve customers have many issues to consider, and now they must add to their list customers refusing to wear masks because of a claimed disability.
Many businesses are now requiring customers to
Continue Reading Reopening Businesses Face Customer Pushback on Mask Requirements Under ADA
By Minh N. Vu and John W. Egan
Seyfarth Synopsis: Reopening businesses need to carefully consider how social distancing and other Covid-19 mitigation measures will impact customers with disabilities and be prepared to make adjustments.
Covid-19 has had a profound impact on the ways in which we use (or, more accurately, avoid) public accommodations spaces in recent months. As
Continue Reading Reopening Businesses Face Thorny Customer-Facing ADA Issues
By Kristina M. Launey & Minh N. Vu
We’ve sheltered in place and finished our tally. The numbers are in for total website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal courts in 2019, they show a small decrease from 2018. The total number of website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court (i.e. lawsuits alleging that plaintiffs with a disability could not
Continue Reading The Curve Has Flattened for Federal Website Accessibility Lawsuits
By Minh Vu and Michael Steinberg
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a first-in-the-nation decision, Judge Gregory Woods of the Southern District of New York ruled that Title III does not require public accommodations to manufacture or sell Braille gift cards.
It has been a gloomy month for businesses that (ordinarily) open their doors to the public, but there was a small bright
Continue Reading Businesses Get Early Victory in Lawsuit Demanding Braille Gift Cards
By Minh Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: Miniature horses trained to perform work or tasks for a person with a disability must be allowed in public accommodations in most instances.
The news is not particularly uplifting these days, so we thought our readers would enjoy seeing clips of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s miniature horse, Whisky (the clips also features Lulu, his
Continue Reading Mini Horses Can Be “De Facto” Service Animals Too (Plus They Are Really Cute)
By Minh Vu, Kristina Launey and Susan Ryan
Seyfarth Synopsis: The ADA Title III federal lawsuit numbers in 2019 topped 11,000 for another all-time record.
Plaintiffs filed at least 11,053 ADA Title III lawsuits in federal court in 2019 — 890 (or 8.8%) more than in 2018. This is the highest number since we started tracking these lawsuits
Continue Reading 2019 Was Another Record-Breaking Year for Federal ADA Title III Lawsuits
By: Minh N. Vu and Samuel Sverdlov
Seyfarth Synopsis: Purveyors of porn are being sued for offering online videos without closed captioning.
We really can’t make this stuff up. Lawsuits by deaf plaintiffs against public accommodations for failing to provide closed captioning for videos on their websites are not uncommon. But last week, a deaf man sued three porn websites
Continue Reading Deaf Man Demands Closed Captioning for Porn Videos in Federal Lawsuit
By Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth synopsis: ADA Title III lawsuits flooded federal courts in 2019 and will likely continue to do so in 2020 with new theories for the courts to consider.
We are still tallying up the end-of-year numbers, but the number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal courts by the end of November 2019 (10,206) exceeded
Continue Reading ADA Title III Litigation: A 2019 Review and Hot Trends for 2020
By Minh N. Vu and John W. Egan
Seyfarth Synopsis: Enterprising plaintiffs in New York are suing more than 100 businesses under a new theory – – that ADA Title III requires Braille gift cards.
Between Thursday, October 24 and as recently as last Friday, over 100 putative class action lawsuits (and counting) have been filed against businesses for violations
Continue Reading New York Federal Dockets Flooded With Cases Alleging That Failing To Provide A Gift Card With Braille Violates The ADA