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By Eden Anderson

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

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 Kristina M. Launey and Minh N. Vu

Seyfarth Synopsis: Website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal court in 2019 are on track to exceed 2018.  Will we see an increase in filings as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the Ninth Circuit’s Order in Robles v. Domino’s?

As of June 30, 2019, we counted 1204 website…
Continue Reading Federal Website Access Lawsuit Numbers Increase 7 Percent in 2019, With Possible Bump from Supreme Court Denial of Cert in Domino’s

By Minh N. Vu

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Serious sanctions imposed on a serial ADA Title III plaintiff and his attorney should concern the plaintiffs’ bar.

People often ask us why plaintiffs are filing hundreds of ADA Title III lawsuits when the law only allows for injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees and costs.  In the case of prolific plaintiff Alexander Johnson,…
Continue Reading Florida Judge Sanctions Serial ADA Plaintiff Alexander Johnson and Attorney Scott Dinin

By Minh N. Vu and Kristina M. Launey

Domino’s filed its petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court today, June 13, 2019, asking the Court to review and overturn the Ninth Circuit’s decision which allowed a website accessibility lawsuit to proceed against Domino’s.  Domino’s styled the question presented as “Whether Title III of the ADA requires a…
Continue Reading Domino’s Files Petition for US Supreme Court Review of Unfavorable Website Access Decision

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By: Kristina M. Launey and Samuel Sverdlov

Seyfarth Synopsis: A SDNY judge dismissed a website accessibility lawsuit finding that the company mooted the allegations in the complaint by remediating the accessibility barriers and that the Court lacked personal jurisdiction since the company does not transact business in New York.

New York federal courts are a hotbed for ADA Title III…
Continue Reading SDNY Dismisses Website Accessibility Lawsuit Based on Mootness and Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

By John W. Egan and Minh N. Vu

Seyfarth Synopsis: A Committee in the New York State Senate aims to develop a legal standard for the accessibility of business websites under New York law, in response to the exponential increase in website accessibility litigation in the state. Whether state legislation could stem this tide, or instead make matters worse for …
Continue Reading New York Lawmakers Plan To Address Website Accessibility

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Domino’s Likely to File Petition for Certiorari from Ninth Circuit’s Ruling in Robles v. Domino’s.

As we reported, the Ninth Circuit held in January that a blind plaintiff could move forward with his ADA Title III lawsuit against Domino’s Pizza for having an allegedly inaccessible website and mobile app.  The court determined that allowing the claim to…
Continue Reading Domino’s To Ask Supreme Court To Consider Whether ADA Website/Mobile App Accessibility Lawsuits Violate Due Process

Seyfarth Synopsis:  DOJ provides guidance on sales/service counter rules in the 2010 Standards that provides some relief to businesses.

Retailers and other businesses should be pleased with the DOJ’s pronouncement on February 25, 2019, that they can lawfully provide sales/service counter space that is less than 36” long, as long as the entire space is at an accessible height of…
Continue Reading Justice Department: Businesses Can Provide Less Than 36″ Of Clear Sales/Service Counter Space If Counter Is At An Accessible Height