Small businesses face increasing exposure to frivolous and abusive lawsuits brought by predatory trial lawyers eager to exploit well-intentioned laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, these lawyers are targeting Main Street business owners over alleged issues with their websites for details such as the colors and fonts they choose to display.
The situation often begins with small business owners receiving a letter from a lawyer they’ve never heard of, claiming their website violates the ADA. The letter demands thousands of dollars to settle the claim, and in some instances, the lawyer even offers the same business as the services it provides to bring its website into compliance. It’s an outrageous situation, but for these trial lawyers, it’s a “heads I win, tails I also win” scenario.
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The ADA serves an important mission of ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Unfortunately, in the decades since its passage, the law has been weaponized by predatory trial lawyers. For a small business operating on tight margins, these costly and abusive lawsuits can be devastating.
In an ever-evolving, modern business landscape, Main Street has been propelled online, with websites now serving as front doors. Businesses must be welcoming and accessible to meet all their customers’ needs. Why then, has there been a surge of frivolous and abusive ADA website-lawsuit claims suggesting otherwise?
Aggressive trial lawyers have found an easy payday, standing as the undeniable winners with their hefty legal fees. They send out letters by the hundreds, utilizing the same plaintiff. Small businesses are particularly at risk because they lack the time, resources, or in-house lawyers to defend against these abusive claims.
In recent months, the frequency of these abusive ADA lawsuits has skyrocketed in Missouri. One Missouri small business has faced three separate lawsuits from out-of-state firms in less than five years, after having hired four different ADA consulting firms to prevent and correct website violations. The small business’s lawyer stated these lawsuits were “just the cost of doing business.” This is wrong. Small businesses should not be held hostage by aggressive trial lawyers eager to make a quick buck.
Missouri legislators understood the urgent need to protect small businesses from the increasing volume of abusive lawsuits. With bipartisan support, they passed legislation recently signed into law that gives business owners a window of opportunity to resolve alleged accessibility issues before facing a lawsuit.
Following Missouri’s lead, similar legislation has been introduced in Congress. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) introduced H.R. 7328, the Protecting Small Businesses from Predatory Website Lawsuits Act. This legislation would establish a 180-day notice-and-cure period to fix any alleged website ADA compliance issues.
Additionally, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) introduced H.R. 6453, the ADA 30 Days to Comply Act, which would, similarly, give small businesses a 30-day notice-and-cure period to correct alleged ADA violations.
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Small businesses already tackle many challenges every day, all while doing their best to comply with numerous government regulations and compliance requirements. Congress can help Main Street business owners spend their time on making payroll, hiring employees, or giving back to their communities by protecting small businesses from abusive lawsuits.
Missouri provided the bipartisan model to reform this predatory behavior. Now is the time for Congress to work together and pass this critical legislation for small business owners across the United States.
Mary Alex Hamby is a principal of Federal Government Relations at the National Federation of Independent Business.