[c0-author: Susan Ryan]

Seyfarth Synopsis: The decline in ADA Title III lawsuits that began in 2022 comes to a halt in 2024 and California retakes its mantle of “national filing hotspot.”

ADA Title III filings have decreased each year since 2022. 2024 changes the narrative with an uptick in filings, albeit a small one. In 2021, we saw the highest mid-year total since we started keeping count in 2017: 6,304 ADA Title III lawsuit filings in the first six months of the year. Since then, however, the numbers have fallen.

At the mid-year point in 2022, there were 4,914 ADA Title III lawsuits filed, compared to 4,081 at the same point in 2023. We wondered if the trend would continue and if so, just how far the numbers would fall. Well, the numbers are in, and the filings are slightly up from 2023 but still below 2022. From the beginning of January to end of June of 2024, 4,280 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal courts. If this trend continues for the rest of the year, the projected number of suits for 2024 will be around 8,500 – slightly higher than 2023 but lower than 2022.

In addition, New York’s reign as a top filing destination for ADA Title III plaintiffs for the first six months of 2024 has come to an end. 1,106 lawsuits were filed in the first half of 2024, down from a high of 1,819 in 2022 and 1,477 in 2023.

Sunny California – which had been the dominant state until 2022 – retakes the top spot. So far this year, there have been 1,588 ADA Title III filings in the California federal district courts, a significantly higher number than New York. In third place was Florida, with 781, about half of California’s total. Rounding out the top five are Texas and Pennsylvania, maintaining their positions from last year and the year before.

Here are the top ten states with the highest number of cases filed so far this year:

What accounts for the rise in ADA Title III filings and for the trade-off in spots between California and New York? With regard to the latter, serial plaintiffs represented by a New York law firm responsible for hundreds of filings each year have been filing in New York state court, resulting in fewer filings in New York federal court. There have also been some filings in New Jersey state court. Notwithstanding this shift to New York and New Jersey state courts, the overall number of federal lawsuits is still higher than last year, indicating that 2024 has seen more accessibility litigation. We attribute this increase in part to a significant increase in federal lawsuits filed in Minnesota – from 5 in 2023 to 65 so far in 2024. Sixty-three of these suits have been filed by the same law firm on behalf of three plaintiffs.

Check back with us in January 2025 when will have final numbers for the entire year.

Our Methodology: Our overall ADA Title III lawsuit numbers come from the federal court’s docketing system, PACER. However, because the area of law code that covers ADA Title III cases also includes ADA Title II cases, our research department reviews the complaints to remove those from the count.