ADA LAWYERS. ADA DEFENSE.

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EXPERIENCED ADA LAWSUIT LAWYERS

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Welcome to the Law Offices of Nolan Klein. We represent businesses and individuals in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits.

Our Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit defense attorney, Nolan Klein, has represented clients in more than 700 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cases, and he is the author of the ADA Law & Lawsuits guidebook.

Mr. Klein has appeared as an expert on Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) litigation in the national media, including 60 Minutes and in the Wall Street Journal. He is a Lawline faculty member and has taught three legal classes for lawyers on how to represent clients in ADA lawsuits. Mr. Klein's class on Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website lawsuits has been taken by thousands of lawyers and it can be viewed here.

If your business is facing an ADA lawsuit, contact us today for a free consultation. The call will cost you nothing, and it could make all the difference to your case.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT INFORMATION CENTER

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law intended to provide equal access to individuals with disabilities. While it has done so, it has also spawned many lawsuits.

Through this act, individuals with disabilities are given the right to equal access to employment opportunities, public accommodations, transportation and government services. Businesses throughout this United States are required to comply with the ADA and ensure that their facilities are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Failure to do so can result in legal action - most likely an ADA lawsuit.

At the Law Offices of Nolan Klein, our experienced ADA attorneys provide top-notch legal assistance to businesses that are facing allegations of non-compliance with the ADA. We have extensive experience (15+ years) in representing clients in ADA compliance matters and have a proven track record of successfully defending businesses against ADA lawsuits, and resolving those lawsuits favorably.

ADA Compliance Requirements for Businesses Open to the Public

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has specific requirements that must be met. Those requirements include:

Ensuring physical accessibility: Businesses must ensure that their facilities are accessible to individuals with disabilities, including providing ramps, wide doorways, and handicap parking spots.
Providing reasonable accommodations: Employers must make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, such as providing assistive technology.
Accessible communication: Businesses must ensure that all forms of communication, including websites, are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Removing physical barriers: If a barrier prevents an individual with a disability from accessing a business or its services, the business must remove it if possible or provide alternative accommodations.

Service animal accommodation: Individuals with disabilities who use service animals must be allowed access to all areas where customers are allowed unless the animal's presence would cause a fundamental alteration to the business or pose a direct threat.

Compliance with accessibility standards: Businesses must comply with specific accessibility standards set by the ADA, including those for accessible building design and construction.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. This includes individuals with mobility impairments, hearing and vision impairments, learning disabilities, chronic illnesses, and other similar conditions.

Possible Consequences for ADA Non-Compliance

Failure to comply with ADA requirements can result in serious consequences for businesses, including legal action and financial penalties. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is responsible for enforcing the ADA and can initiate lawsuits against non-compliant businesses. More likely, however, is that a private individual will bring a lawsuit for ADA violations.

If a business is found to be non-compliant, they may be required to make necessary changes to become compliant, and pay legal fees and litigation costs to anyone who has been discriminated against.

In addition to legal consequences, non-compliance with the ADA can lead to reputational damage for businesses. Word of mouth and online reviews can greatly impact a business's reputation, especially in today's digital age where information spreads quickly.

ADA Lawsuit Defense Options for Businesses

When faced with allegations of non-compliance with the ADA, there are several defense strategies that a business, with the help of an experienced ADA lawyer, can employ.

Compliance: One of the simplest and most effective defense strategies is to demonstrate compliance with ADA guidelines. If a business can prove that it has met all the requisite ADA standards, it establishes a strong defense.

Reasonable Accommodations: If a business has made reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, even if they do not perfectly adhere to ADA standards, courts might consider the effort made to accommodate as a valid defense.

Undue Hardship: In cases where a business can demonstrate that the implementation of certain accessibility measures would cause an undue hardship - meaning significant difficulty or expense, a court may consider these valid grounds for defense.

Safe Harbor Rule: The ADA "safe harbor" clause states that certain elements in facilities that were in compliance with previous (1991) ADA standards do not necessarily need to be modified to adhere to the current (2010) standards. Invoking the "safe harbor" rule can be a useful defense.

Fundamental Alteration: If a business can prove that making the necessary alterations to comply with the ADA would fundamentally alter the nature of the business, this could be used as a defense.

Each of these potential defenses requires careful consideration and expert legal guidance to implement effectively. Our skilled ADA defense attorney is prepared to help your business to navigate these complexities, ensuring that you understand all of your rights and options.

Common Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Questions and Issues

ADA Website Lawsuits

In recent years many ADA lawsuits have been filed against businesses that conduct commerce online where their website is not accessible to the visually impaired. Blind and visually impaired internet users who are disabled under the ADA have a number of options for “reading” their computer screens and using online commerce features. The most widely accepted website technical standards for compatibility with screen reading software is Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, commonly known as WCAG 2.0. When implemented on a website, these guidelines make the website usable by individuals with visual impairments, and the guidelines have been adopted on the websites of many (if not most) major online retailers.

ADA Architectural Barrier Requirements

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that “places of public accommodation” make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, including compliance with very specific architectural requirements. The most common accommodations include installation of disabled parking spaces, restaurant seating, accessible bathrooms, ramps, and other such features needed to integrate the disabled.

The law also applies equally to landlords and tenants, making each jointly liable for ADA violations that are present on the property. Tenants may be sued even though alleged violations are on property controlled by the landlord (for example, a parking lot), and landlords may be sued for alleged violations in a tenant space (for example, inaccessible restaurant seating). As a result, the business owner, and its landlord (the property owner) are almost always sued together in these cases.

Online Reservation System Cases

Hotels must ensure that individuals with disabilities can make reservations for accessible guest rooms during the same hours and in the same manner as people who do not need accessible rooms. These regulations require that any means by which hotels take reservations must “[i]dentify and describe accessible features in the hotels and guest rooms [. . .] in enough detail to reasonably permit individuals with disabilities to assess independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs.”

Who can file an ADA lawsuit?

Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits are governed by the same general rules as other federal civil rights cases. The ability to bring a case is called "standing" to sue. There is a very complicated body of case law on this issue, but in a nutshell, to bring an ADA claim, a plaintiff must be disabled as that terms is defined by the ADA, they must have encountered a barrier to access applicable to their disability, and the issue must be fixable by curt order. So if a person is not disabled, they cannot bring an ADA case. If a disabled person does not encounter a barrier, they have no ADA case. Finally, if a disabled person encounters a barrier but there is nothing for the court to do about it (for example, the issue was fixed before an ADA lawsuit was filed), then there is also no ADA case.

Are all ADA defense lawyers the same?

In a word: No. As ADA lawsuits have become more common, there has been an entry into the ADA space by ADA defense lawyers who do not have necessarily have as much experience as those, like our firm, who have been practicing in this area for more than a decade and a half. Why does experience matter? Simply put, while most ADA cases settle, some just do not. If a case is just not resolvable, an ADA defense lawyer with less experience might be at a loss, whereas firms that have won ADA cases will know exactly how to move forward. We have won summary judgment, and even at trial, for clients in ADA cases - and no doubt, an ADA defense lawyer who has a track record of winning cases will be in a better position to settle on strong terms for their clients. So simply put, all ADA defense lawyers are not the same, and anyone sued in an ADA case should always understand a lawyer's depth of experience in this field.

Does my website have to comply with the ADA?

This is a complicated question. But as a practical matter, if you do not want to be sued, then yes, your website should comply with the ADA, because otherwise you might get dragged into court in a state or jurisdiction far away, where the judge believes that the ADA applies to websites. True, nothing in the ADA (as of this writing) directly speaks to compliance on websites, and also true that judges around the country have many different views regarding the ADA and websites. It may also be true that your website is only informational (not transactional), and that you live in a state with almost no ADA litigation. All of that can be true, but none of it will be helpful if you are sued for ADA violations far from home, in a judicial district where application of the ADA to websites is the norm. So to answer this question - maybe the ADA applies to your website and maybe it does not, but comply anyways, create access anyways, and avoid lawsuits anyways.

ADDITIONAL ADA FAQs CAN BE READ HERE

ADA LAW & LAWSUITS GUIDEBOOK by Nolan Klein, Esq., is available for FREE download HERE

Additional ADA Source Materials:

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

1991 Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines

2010 Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines

We Offer Reliable ADA Defense Services – Contact Us Today!

Our experienced ADA attorneys have extensive knowledge and experience handling ADA compliance and lawsuit defense issues, and we can help to ensure that your business handles ADA issues and litigation properly. Contact us for a free consultation. and to learn more about how our firm can assist with your ADA issues.