SACRAMENTO – What is the number one legal issue that threatens California small business owners? Unwarranted Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits filed by unscrupulous lawyers, says regional director Maryann Marino of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.
In the nearly 30 years since the enactment of the ADA in 1990, Marino said in a statement that California has "failed to shield thousands of vulnerable business owners from attacks by our state’s self-appointed 'private enforcers.'”
The goal of the ADA is to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities. Under the law, entities, including small businesses, who violate the law are subject to fines and penalties. The problem, as Marino sees it, is that any individual can file a complaint against a business charging that the business is operating in violation of the law. Some individuals have filed hundreds of ADA complaints and some plaintiffs have filed suits against businesses they have never visited.
Once a business is targeted, the business owner may receive a letter from an attorney who offers to settle the complaint in return for payment. The attorneys and their clients count on the fact that many small business owners will settle rather than go to court to defend themselves.
“Loopholes in the law continue to attract a small band of lawyers who are willing to exploit the law for personal gain,” Marino said.
One California district attorney has decided to fight back. Marino and CALA have commended Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin for naming and suing four attorneys in April who Hestrin alleges filed fraudulent lawsuits against small business owners in Riverside County.
“CALA applauds Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin and the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office for its efforts to correct a long overdue wrong, abusive lawsuits filed against small businesses under the Americans with Disability Act,” Julie Griffiths and Marino, both regional directors for Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, said in a statement.
The attorneys named in the suit are James Rutherford, Babak Hashemi, Joseph Manning Jr., Craig Cote and Michael Manning. Also named as defendants are law firms Manning Law and the Law Offices of Babak Hashemi.
The Riverside complaint states that the named attorneys “colluded, conspired and/or otherwise agreed to engage in an ADA lawsuit scheme, designed to defraud, extract and/or extort money settlements from Riverside County individuals and businesses, based on the fraud, misrepresentations and false allegations contained in each and every one of the federal lawsuits.”
More than 4,249 federal ADA lawsuits were filed in California in 2018, more than in any other state in the nation.
"... Legislators must take swift action to protect those for which the spirit of ADA was intended, but also move swiftly to protect business owners from abuse," CALA said in a statement.