I have heard about the stream of ADA access lawsuits targeting small businesses in B'game over the last few months. Now the SF Chronicle is reporting that two high-profile, big city DA's (who are facing recall elections) are trying to do something about it. This strikes close to home because the typical settlement is in the range of $10,000 – 11,000. That's no small change for a small business. The Chron notes
Accusing a law firm of fleecing small businesses in California with thousands of baseless disability-rights suits, the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles asked a judge Monday to halt the practice and order the firm to refund millions of dollars the businesses paid to settle the suits. For years, the firm, Potter Handy of San Diego, has been “bombarding California’s small businesses with abusive, boilerplate lawsuits,” District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his Los Angeles County counterpart, George Gascón, said in a suit in San Francisco Superior Court.
They said the firm sues on behalf of a handful of disabled clients who, in most cases, have never even visited the businesses and claim violations that are typically fabricated. One of Potter Handy’s clients, Brian Whitaker, has filed approximately 1,700 suits, and another, Orlando Garcia, has filed more than 800, the district attorneys’ lawsuit said. Both live in Los Angeles County but have filed hundreds of cases in the Bay Area.
I spoke with local litigator Mike Liberty, who has represented one local B'game business in one of Mr. Whitaker's 1,700 lawsuits, about the move by Boudin and Gascón. He estimates there could be as many as 40 such suits just in B'game. While Mike agrees that the statute is being exploited, he's not confident that the federal law as currently written will give a judge enough room to side with the plaintiffs and the Mom & Pops. I often complain about judges legislating from the bench and this is no exception. The answer may be to revise the ADA itself, but in the meantime I would love to see our Burlingame City Attorney, Michael Guina, jump into support the lawsuit via an amicus brief.
It would show that our city council's oft-repeated support for small B'game businesses walks the walk and not just talks the talk. Check out the photo below of an EssEff business that got sued during Covid when it was only doing take-out!
May 8 Update: Here is a paragraph from the Daily Post that is B'game specific. Can you say "refund"?
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