California State Sen. Roger Niello
The California State Senate has passed a measure designed to provide relief for small businesses that have been inundated with predatory Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits that critics say enrich trial lawyers but do little to promote accessibility.
Senators passed Senate Bill 84, authored by Sen. Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks), by a margin of 34-2 on Wednesday, June 4. SB 84, if enacted, would bar construction-related legal claims seeking damages unless the defendant has been provided a letter detailing the accessibility violations and the violations have not been corrected within about four months. And it would apply to defendant businesses that employ 50 or fewer workers, according to the state Legislature’s analysis of the bill.
Victor Gomez, executive director of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), said the bill represents a common-sense reform that advances real solutions over special interests.
“This bill is a crucial step toward stopping the abuse of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by predatory attorneys who exploit technical violations for personal profit, not accessibility,” Gomez said in a statement.
But other groups, such as Disability Rights California, oppose SB 84, saying it would amount to backsliding on efforts to address civil rights issues facing the disabled. It places the burden of identifying ADA violations and notifying offenders on people with disabilities, according to Disability Rights California and other groups.
“By increasing the barriers for people with disabilities to bring private lawsuits, this bill will eliminate the disability community’s primary tool for holding non-compliant businesses accountable, disincentivize proactive compliance with the law and increase access barriers,” a coalition of disability rights groups reported.
The measure treats disabled people as second-class citizens and limits their access to the civil court system, opponents say.
But HB 84 supporters such as the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) argue that plaintiffs’ lawyers have been engaging in an ADA-based shakedown of small businesses for too long. The measure offers “a win-win situation” that helps the disabled and struggling small firms, according to CJAC..
“Bipartisan authorship and resounding support for SB 84 on the Senate floor is encouraging,” and we are hopeful the Assembly Judiciary Committee will hear the bill this year,” the CJAC president and CEO, Kyla Christoffersen Powell, said in a statement emailed to the Southern California Record. “Small businesses up and down the state are looking to the Legislature to provide leadership and adopt this commonsense reform."
Gomez expressed disappointment that two senators voted against the legal reform measure.
“Small businesses across the state – especially in working-class and immigrant communities – are disproportionately targeted by serial litigants who use the threat of costly lawsuits as a weapon,” he said. “For many of these businesses, one lawsuit can mean closing their doors for good.”
Gomez added that California has been ground zero for serial ADA lawsuits.
“A small number of law firms and plaintiffs file thousands of copy-paste complaints, often without ever visiting the location in question,” he said. “These drive-by lawsuits exploit the legal system and siphon millions of dollars away from community investment and job creation.”
Sen. Niello said that in 2021, California had more disability-access lawsuits than all the other states combined. In addition, many of the ADA claims involved technical violations, such as a bathroom mirror being 1.5 inches too high or a handicap parking space sign having the wrong shade of blue, he said.
“People with disabilities deserve accessibility, and businesses deserve the opportunity to fix compliance issues before facing harsh legal consequences,” Niello said. “I am glad to be part of the solution that strengthens disability rights while safeguarding small businesses from exploitative lawsuits.”
