Shuttered business wins ADA lawsuit fight 

The crime is enacting legislation that enables the extortion. Just like Title IX has ruined school sports.

@@patmcbride9853 True. True. I just saw a youtube video with the headline, "Judge calls the disability law a shell game. But before the lawmakers correct the problem many, many people will be harmed.

As a person in a wheelchair for 35 years, I agree with you. The ADA was never meant to ruin people’s lives and livelihoods. It’s purpose is to make inclusion for all. I believe the owners should have recourse against this crime. I think 90 days for a business to respond is perfect and 180 days for a business to make changes to address the issues. I have always found that talking to an owner solved my issues and informed them that something wasn’t right.

Unfortunately the worst that ever happens to these extortionists is they are designated 'vexatious litigants.'

It was simply bad law

Pat Beaudry - I'm with yu Pat! I'm also disabled. If I see a problem I just ask nicely to see a manager & point it out. If they don't "get it", I've actually asked them to follow me into a bathroom & show them why it's a problem. Suddenly, eyes are opened & changes are made.

Anyone with a fierce sense of independence, wanting to "pay their own way" should be respected, especially with someone with more disadvantage than average. It could be argued that these scum have a "disability;" (saying that with a good deal of sarcasm Pat Beaudry) which is an inability to make an honest living. There is treatment for this, it's called jail

As an Australian, most of us don't think like this. We always suspect that people that bring up these kinds of cases really don't give a proverbial about accessibility issues for the disabled, only to make a quick buck

It's not the lawsuit itself but the circumstances under which it has filed. As some of those on the receiving end of these lawsuits have said, "if they'd come to me with their concerns first, I would have addressed them." In some cases the lawsuits were filed without even entering the premises. Lawyers are often despised in community because they often encourage their clients to continue with this kind of thing without even considering the moral consequences. "Sue first, ask questions later" is never the approach anyone should take

@@julie.1081 You are actually making a difference.

It's a whole industry, especially in California, frivolous ADA lawsuits.

It’s a get rich quick, scheme. And the attorney should be disbarred!

They do seem to be in it for the money, but if the restaurants just complied with the law there wouldn’t be any problems. Disabled people (and many other minority groups) have had to fight tooth and nail to get equal access, but it is the ambulance chasing lawyers that are the problem.

@@thomascarroll9556 Do you have any idea how hard it is to comply with all the laws. Its difficult and there are some cases where you have 2 separate government agencies with opposing rules for the same thing and citing the same reason. There was one place I heard of that had just that issue. To prevent the spread of disease and contaminants the door had to open in for one agency and out for the other. And that isn't even getting into laws that change. That bathroom could have easily have been in compliance when it was put in and out of compliance due to changes in the law.

@@olstar18 yes I do,

I love a happy ending.

Best news I've heard in a long time.

Find out the lawyers, paralegals, etc working for Weiss and add them to that black list. It is all of them that should pay the price for bad faith practices of who they work for and none of them should be allowed to move onto the next firm or personal practice with out a reminder of their past misdeeds. These are service jobs and without clients to service, with their livelihood squashed, this will hopefully drive them away from practicing law.

There's more than one of these guys but I know who you're talking about. Some of his prior staff have been very vocal about his abuse to them. They shed a lot of light on what that guy does

I am pretty sure it is the same law group as well. Weiss

So can't these people get into trouble for filing false accusations? It puts tremendous pressure on these owners and businesses unnecessarily. In my mind, it should at least be a fine and mandatory jail time for filing false reports. It's also wasting the courts time.

@@movie0007 , these are civil lawsuits. If they were pursuing criminal cases against a business or calling the police, that is a waste of resources. But this is quite common. They file a suit and the small business’ insurance pays out without fighting or going to trial because it costs less. One person got caught having sued almost 400 small businesses, some of which they had never even visited.

Civil RICO

But there is the problem. Even with that lawsuit, the guy will never pay. If they finally put into law that a lawsuit and judgement can go against any tax return you get, a lot of these idiots would stop.

You obviously have no clue what you are talking about Jacob. These people are not suing for compliance. This is what is called a "drive by lawsuit". It is simply a grab for money. People look for non compliance, and will sue you very every single one. Then they offer you a settlement to drop the case. This settlement is kept by the lawyer and plaintiff. The lawyer and complainant are often in cohorts with one another, and often scams involve lawyers or "ring leaders" paying others to report such violations and in return receive a kick back. There are even companies build around doing this, that's their sole purpose and they are funded by the lawsuits. This problem is rampant, abusing ADA laws for something as simple as having a mirror an inch too high, or a handicap sign a bit to beaten up. This is why they dropped the case and didn't ask for any proof. They wanted the settlement, that's all they care about. Hiding behind ADA like little cowards, as it protects them from counter-suits because they are "protecting" the handicap. It isn't, this is just a scam, one of many.

If I was the owner I would have pushed the cripple into the river behind the restaurant and been done with it.

@@timmyy420 (lol)

Just because some form of technology exists that could be used to increase accessibility for the disabled doesn't mean the disabled have an unlimited entitlement to have access and the use of it. In a perfect world, literally each and every door in a public place a would be automatic and operable with no effort. However the current ADA regulations only require "reduced opening force" in lieu of automatic operation. Therefore the owner of a facility would not be required to have automatic doors and if the facility had manually operated doors that opened with reduced force, that would be compliant with the ADA and it would not constitute a form of discrimination. Furthermore, some forms of required ADA accommodations have significant costs, but the business is prohibited from charging a disabled person for the extra expense of providing those accommodations. This is a violation of the 14Th Amendment rights of the business because the government is taking property (remuneration from the cost of services that it is required to render) without just compensation.

@@kansasthunderman1 You don't know what you're talking about! Tell me what your credentials are before you spout. I can get an ADA ICC certified expert here to answer your misguided statements!

@@lepq30 Disabled people should be helped, but not catered to. This is life, not heaven.

Ada is a federal law. There should be a "available service" area exclusion, i.e. if wn 1 mile radius a comparable business with essentially similar product meets Ada requirements no suit or complaint sb allowed. Can you see the reasonableness of this exclusion.

ADA is Federal law, and is essentially part of The National Building Code. State and local codes cannot supersede National Code (but they can be stricter than National code). Being part of the building code, a local or state inspector could have caught these violations and issued a citation to the business, with a deadline to correct the problem. In some cases, if the problem is corrected in a timely manner, no fine is issued. The health dept could have also caught this. Inspectors do more than give businesses and contractors a hard time. They also protect those businesses.

That doesn't make sense. Every room in a hotel isn't accessible.

Some disabled people are so bitter about the real struggles that life hands them, they don't care who suffers- with luck, we will all make it to old age, and we will need these 'elder accessible' amenities

@@zelousfoxtrot3390 that’s not true. These cases are brought by scam artists.

@@mymia731 no, not all of them.

@@norml.hugh-mann I'd wager most of them are, though.

Would be ok

They are too busy tracking down Trump voters.

@@newsnowadirondacksredux360 this is an old comment

@@qjtvaddict this is a current reality.

The FBI works for the Democratic Party now. This is a Republican representative working for fair & equitable systems. Ain’t gunna happen. The FBI doesn’t give any ishts. The FBI is basically the DNC Gestapo now.

Sadly Senate Democrats blocked the law that would have helped with this.

There ought to be a law that the more lawsuits you file the more expensive they get for filing fees. E.g., the first lawsuit might cost $1, then $2, $4, $8, $16, etc.

@@lukebouma9292: Federal or state Senate? What other unrelated pieces of legislation were wrapped up in that bill that was blocked? And what was the date on which the legislation was blocked?

@@lukebouma9292 Of course they did. They are lawyers- they are not going to pass something against their own.

@@briangraham5156 - See, Republicans have a majority in that state so any legislative problems must be the Democrats fault. /s

Sure does. Or copyright trolling.

What’s Patent Trolling?

@@LightStorm. Filing a lawsuit claiming that you have a patent or copyright on a product or service (when you actually don't). Plaintiffs will either sue for just below the amount it would cost the defendant in legal fees to fight the case. Or. The plaintiff will offer to settle for an unusually low amount, just before going to trial.

Try 99.99%

@Jacob D not extortion you say, smells like a load of crap to me! The Attorney even said $15,000 in this lawsuit goes away! What does that sound like to you and he never even mentioned the accessibility issue when asking for the money so if the restaurant owner would have paid the 15,000 the lawsuit would have been dropped without even fixing the issue so let's not play stupid here!

@Jacob D yes yes out-of-court settlement blah blah blah.. another word for legal extortion! Our court system is extremely corrupt and you can find many legalized criminal practices throughout our system! So don't give me your shifty mumbo jumbo, you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.

Jacob D first off if you want to make an argument make it by attacking only his argument or opinion without insulting and attacking the person with the idea instead, it only hurts your argument . Second off this is very different than a landlord having a health hazard in your home. A home isn’t a choice it’s where you live everyday whereas Going to a restaurant is a choice and they can choose to come back after the changes have been made or never come back at all . For an entire business to close down just because toilet paper is 2 inches out of reach is absurd. It’s only fair to allow someone the chance to fix the problem and to legally obligate them to communicate civically. Also keep in mind this business has been inspected by the ADA and they never cited him for any of these claims Also this law has already passed for the entire country

That would definitely prevent a lot of this

Or laziness. an inability to motivate themselves to GET A JOB!. Lazy arseholes, hope Karma bites them on their arse

Lawyers really need liability or they're going to start being held to account by vigilantes

And the greedy person making the claims!

On the other side of it, it's awesome that they found a lawyer willing to do it for free. Part of why this scam works is because typically defending yourself costs as much or more than it does to settle the suit, as disgusting as the offer to settle the suit even is. (Talk about mafia protection scams... what the fuck.)

I had a friend that had a construction company (he’s now retired), and he was threatened with a frivolous lawsuit, and he told them that he would fight them with every penny he had. He soon dropped the suit. Like with school bullies, it takes consistent standing up to such bullies to end it.

Or sometimes it might be easier to just follow the law and be ADA compliant

Lawyers are as much of scum bags as politicians.

@@maxhengstenberg908 Lawyer is far too often the larval stage of Politician.

You're not disabled if you don't understand these people are usually victims to the system. Why aren't physically disabled people able to get more financial help and can only make a certain amount of money to keep their benefits

@@wesley939 that is ignorant. We are in the age of technology, Stephen Hawking held down a full time teaching and research position, appeared as himself in several television shows, and wrote books…. With very FEW exceptions, anyone wanting to sit home and collect money instead of getting a job doesn’t belong in society and society doesn’t owe them anything….

this guy is going to end up bothering the wrong person and will be 'disappeared'.

@@billgillette2859 facts!

The disabled man in this case is fictitious. The law firm made him up.

You do realize social security disability is less than $800 a month, right? And you can't have more than $2k in your bank account at ANY point or you lose it and all other resources tied to you having it.

No.

thst is hard for a defendant to do, he has to sue the other party,

He should just expire

Anyone can sue anyone at anytime for anything. That could be interesting because the Florida resident would have to travel to Colorado on their own expense for a trial if the case isn't thrown out or settled.

That law is going to open up a lot of vindictive litigation against women a person is mad at or joksters that want revenge because a girl told them no and now the girl will have to prove in court she's virgin. ETC. BS stuff because that's the way some people are. Others will do it for the money and make up stuff to get money. It could end up tying up the courts for BS for a long time. Other states may use it to prohibit guns and anyone helping a person secure a gun. It has lots of court stopping implications. Real court cases could grind to a halt over people wanting a piece of the pie and creating BS to get it.

What do you call a bus full of lawyers going off a cliff with an empty seat? A waste!

Q. Whats the difference between a sea slug and a lawyer A. one is a bottom feeding, scum sucking parasite, the other is a marine invertebrate.

Christopher Tucker what about the lawyer who defended him for free?

People always want to complain about lawyers. But want one to represent them for free ie pro bono. When they finally need a lawyer

Oh there are, there is one guy that travels around doing the same thing. They offer a settlement to not go to court, most small businesses end up paying because they fear they will end up paying more!

I appreciate the ada..I would not be able to get around in a wheelchair or have an emotional support or service dogs or handicap ramp without it. I would not even have housing accessibility. But I don't think people need to go around suing businesses either. If there is an issue, I talk to the person causing the problem, then the business. If not resolved, I would ask the dept of Justice what to do or they contact the business and explain the law. No money lost, problem solved. The Ada makes the US more handicap accessible but misuse of it, like in this case, is a problem.

You'd be surprised how many ways things are still inaccessible for people with numerous disabilities (even though people are aware of the problem) or how rude people can be to handicapped individuals who need help.. Without knowing who to talk to, they just stay that way. So the law and doj are needed but just have to be used properly

Why not be required to approach owners about concerns before any litigation can begin? That would cull the cases like this one.