New batch of ADA lawsuits hits Austin businesses
http://kxan.com/2015/12/10/new-batch-of-ada-lawsuits-hits-austin-businesses/
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Another wave of lawsuits targeting alleged violations of disability access laws hit numerous local businesses Wednesday.
One Austin attorney, Omar Rosales, and his client, John Deutsch, filed more than 25 lawsuits this week in federal court alleging Austin businesses have failed to comply with the American’s with Disabilities Act, according to court records. The two have sued nearly 150 businesses since May, mostly in South Austin.
Rosales declined to speak on camera about the latest lawsuits. In the past, the attorney told KXAN the goal of the ADA litigation is to improve access for disabled people in Austin. The latest lawsuits have been filed against a variety of businesses, ranging from Mexican restaurants to auto mechanics and a dry cleaner.
The location occupied by Mexican restaurant Curra’s Grill at the intersection of East Oltorf Street and East Side Drive received one of the lawsuits filed Wednesday. Restaurant owner Jorge Garcia said the business location has already been sued in the past by a different entity for alleged ADA problems. As soon as the previous lawsuit was filed, Garcia said he “went ahead and corrected the problems because we know how important our ADA customers are.”
Regarding the latest suit, Garcia said he did not receive warning or request for fixes prior to being sued. Still, it is the owner of the property listed in the lawsuit as opposed to Garcia himself.
“They could’ve just told us, ‘Hey, we think that [parking aisle] is not wide enough,'” Garcia said.
During an investigation into Deutsch’s and Rosales’ lawsuits in November, KXAN spoke with several business owners on the receiving end of similar ADA lawsuits. Many of those defendants said they had never seen Deutsch, and they never received complaints about ADA access at their businesses prior to being served with a lawsuit.
ADA law, however, does not require a plaintiff to notify a business prior to suing it for compliance problems.
In an email, Rosales told KXAN the Curra’s lawsuit centered on van-access problems.
“The purpose of the access aisle is to allow disabled people to remove their wheelchairs from their vehicles safely, and exit their vehicles safely without fear of being run over,” Rosales said in an email. “That entails converting one of the parking spaces to be an access aisle exclusively.”
ADA law, which is 25 years old, requires most commercial businesses that are open to the public to have structural components that allow equal access to people with disabilities, such as handicap parking spaces with signs, properly sized ramps and aisles for wheelchairs, among other things, according to federal law.
ADA experts told KXAN, practically every business is now required to abide by ADA regulations. However, the rules can be enforced by different levels of government in varied ways, which can be confusing and difficult to follow.
The latest batch of lawsuits was filed so recently that several businesses have not yet been served and were not aware of the litigation.
On the link is a map of nearly every ADA lawsuit in Austin filed by Rosales. The green dots indicate the most recent locations that have been sued.
http://kxan.com/2015/12/10/new-batch-of-ada-lawsuits-hits-austin-businesses/
