By John W. Egan and Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: Under a new Consent Decree with the DOJ, 24 Arizona eye surgery centers can no longer require patients with mobility disabilities to pay for third-party services to transfer them on and off operating tables, must pay $1M in damages and penalties, and implement comprehensive ADA policies and training.
Continue Reading Eye Surgery Centers to Pay $1M in Damages and Penalties to Resolve Alleged ADA ViolationsBy Kristina M. Launey & Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: Plaintiffs filed 3,225 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2022 – a 12% increase over 2021.
2022 was another record setting year for website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court. The total number of lawsuits filed in federal court alleging that plaintiffs with a disability could not use websites
Continue Reading Plaintiffs Set a New Record for Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings in 2022Seyfarth Synopsis: We predict another busy year on all fronts as DOJ continues to push its regulatory and enforcement agenda.
Lawsuit Numbers. Last January, we predicted that roughly the same number of ADA Title III lawsuits would be filed in federal court in 2022 as in 2021, but halfway through 2022 it
Continue Reading ADA Title III Crystal Ball: What’s Ahead for 2023?
By Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: UC Berkeley and the DOJ resolve an 8-year investigation with a comprehensive Consent Decree that requires UC Berkeley to make virtually all the content on its online platforms accessible to people with disabilities within three years and adopt comprehensive policies and procedures to ensure accessible online content.
After eight years, the U.S. Department of
Continue Reading UC Berkeley Enters Into Consent Decree with DOJ About Its Websites and Other Online Content
By Kristina Launey and Julia Sarnoff
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice recently issued Guidance for telehealth accessibility with specific examples.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many health care providers and patients turned to telehealth as a way to provide and receive health care services while in lockdown. Telehealth allows providers to see
Continue Reading Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice Issue Joint Guidance On Accessible Telehealth Services
By Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Biden DOJ Civil Rights Division has been much more active than its predecessor in enforcing Title III of the ADA and supporting plaintiffs in pending litigation.
As we predicted in January, the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden Administration has been very busy. In the nine months
Continue Reading Biden Department of Justice Steps up ADA Title III Enforcement
By Minh Vu, Kristina Launey, Susan Ryan
Seyfarth Synopsis: ADA Title III lawsuit filings in federal courts on pace for a record year.
Regular readers will doubtless recall that 2020 was a down year (but just barely) for lawsuits filed in federal court alleging violations of Title III of the ADA. Our mid-year total was 4,751, due to
Continue Reading ADA Title III Federal Mid-Year Lawsuit Numbers at an All-Time High
By Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: California federal trial court grants summary judgment for plaintiff, finding Domino’s violated the ADA by having a website that is inaccessible to the blind and orders Domino’s bring its website into compliance with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
Five years after the lawsuit was first filed, federal district court judge Jesus Bernal ruled on June
Continue Reading Court finds Domino’s Pizza Violated the ADA by Having an Inaccessible Website and Orders WCAG Compliance
Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal judge precluded the plaintiff from multiplying his statutory damages under the Unruh Act by his alleged number of visits to the defendant’s business.
California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (“Unruh Act”) provides for the recovery of the greater of actual damages or $4,000 in statutory damages for “each particular occasion” of access denial. (Civil
Continue Reading Federal Judge Rejects Plaintiff’s Attempt to Inflate Unruh Act Statutory Damages by Making Multiple Visits to Business
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recently-filed lawsuit contains a lengthy critical report by a digital accessibility consultant of accessibility issues created by an accessibility widget.
Amidst the thousands of lawsuits filed over the past few years alleging business’ websites and mobile apps are not accessible to blind individuals, businesses have scrambled to find ways to make their websites and apps accessible. Often
Continue Reading Criticisms of “Quick-Fix” Website Accessibility Products Highlighted in New Lawsuit