Seyfarth Synopsis: ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal courts in 2020 jumped a surprising 12% over 2019, in spite of a mid-year pandemic dip in filings....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Congressmen Budd, Hudson, and Correa reintroduce the Online Accessibility Act which would govern the application of the ADA to websites and mobile applications. ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: ADA Title III lawsuits filed in 2020 fell slightly from last year’s high, but still topped 10,000 for the second time since we started tracking these lawsuits in 2013....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: We predict 2021 will be a very busy year for ADA Title III lawsuits. Here is our take on the types of cases public accommodations can expect to face....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A Biden Administration DOJ will likely bring higher engagement and more aggressive enforcement on ADA Title III issues....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals adopts a burden-shifting framework for analyzing claims involving the removal of pre-ADA barriers which requires the plaintiff to “plausibly show how the cost of removing...more
Seyfarth synopsis: Businesses enjoyed a brief reprieve in ADA Title III lawsuits while the country was shut down but the rest of the year will most likely be business as usual....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: California state courts are becoming an even friendlier jurisdiction for plaintiffs filing lawsuits about allegedly inaccessible websites....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A second California Court of Appeal rules that websites with a nexus to a physical place of business are covered by Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, while a California trial court insists...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Reopening businesses must quickly prepare for customers claiming the ADA exempts them from face mask requirements. ...more
We’ve sheltered in place and finished our tally. The numbers are in for total website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal courts in 2019, they show a small decrease from 2018....more
4/29/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appellate Courts ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court Administration ,
Court Schedules ,
Deadlines ,
Extensions ,
Judicial System ,
Telecommunications ,
Trial Attorneys ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: The ADA Title III federal lawsuit numbers in 2019 topped 11,000 for another all-time record.
Plaintiffs filed at least 11,053 ADA Title III lawsuits in federal court in 2019 — 890 (or 8.8%) more than in...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal court in 2019 are on track to exceed 2018. Will we see an increase in filings as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the Ninth Circuit’s...more
11/4/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dominos ,
Mobile Apps ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
SCOTUS ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth synopsis: California Court of Appeal affirms ruling that inaccessible restaurant website violated the Unruh Act and orders that restaurant website comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA....more
9/11/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Article III ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dominos ,
Due Process ,
Popular ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Standing ,
Title III ,
Unruh Civil Rights Act ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: Congress Members recently renewed their efforts to take legislative action and urge the DOJ take regulatory action regarding physical and website accessibility, respectively....more
9/4/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Equal Access ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Access Laws ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Burden ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
The task of counting the number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal courts grows with the ever-increasing numbers of lawsuits. For the period from January 1, 2019 through June 30, 2019, our research team counted 5,592...more
Domino’s filed its petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court today, June 13, 2019, asking the Court to review and overturn the Ninth Circuit’s decision which allowed a website accessibility lawsuit to...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A SDNY judge dismissed a website accessibility lawsuit finding that the company mooted the allegations in the complaint by remediating the accessibility barriers and that the Court lacked personal...more
6/12/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Kroger ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: Four years and two motions to dismiss based on the pleadings later, the National Association of the Deaf’s (NAD) online video captioning lawsuit against Harvard is moving forward to fact discovery. ...more
As we had predicted, the number of website accessibility lawsuits (i.e. lawsuits alleging that plaintiffs with a disability could not use websites because they were not coded to work with assistive technologies like screen...more
The number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court in 2018 hit a record high of 10,163 – up 34% from 2017 when the number was a mere 7,663. ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Ninth Circuit overturns district court’s dismissal of website accessibility lawsuit on due process and primary jurisdiction grounds, remands case to proceed with discovery....more
1/17/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dominos ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Mobile Apps ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Title III ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: A new Ohio law will require notice and opportunity to cure as a prerequisite for a plaintiff’s recovery of attorney’s fees in physical accessibility lawsuits. ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Department of Transportation says that an airline’s provision of an accessible alternative website violates the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), so are such websites an acceptable means of providing...more
12/31/2018
/ Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) ,
Airlines ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Aviation Industry ,
Consent Order ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Public Accommodation ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: Due process, DOJ’s failure to enact regulations, and whether the ADA covers websites arguments dominated the recent Domino’s Ninth Circuit oral argument....more
10/22/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dominos ,
Due Process ,
Primary Jurisdiction Doctrine ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Title III ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites