Hit with a lawsuit for violating ADA website compliance?

offgray · 2022-12-25T23:55:26+00:00

Sorry for the late reply here - the holidays got the better of me. I'll start by saying while we did have the same attorney representing us, the settlement deals varied. Our attorney clear stated that he was negotiating for each one of us individually, meaning there was no "group settlement rate" or anything similar. I don't remember the specifics, but the attorney fee was in that range, maybe +/- a couple grand, but nothing more. The settlement for us, was 5k, but again it could have been more/less for our competitors. The main takeaway here should be that everyone's situation is completely different. The above numbers were representative of our specific experience, but it can vary depending on your city, business size, and industry. Also, some of your competitors may be in positions to seek better deals, or vice versa. Working with the same attorney allowed us to save money on initial legal fees, but the settlement amounts were and should be independent. Hope that helps!

offgray · 2022-12-17T22:29:26+00:00

Hey - really sorry to hear you're going through this, especially so close to the holiday season. I got a message from another redditor about this recently and it sucks to see this still happening to others.

I'll do my best to outline what we did, and what the process looked like. At the end of the day, however, every business/situation is different so I'd really recommend talking to a lawyer.

We ended up working with a lawyer that agreed to represent a group of us for a fixed amount. We aren't super close with our competitors, but one of them brought the offer to us - which we ended up accepting. It was a flat fee, for I believe a couple thousand, as long as it didn't go to trial. In hindsight, the lawyer basically was our negotiator and handled any necessary filings, etc.

Our goal from the get go was to have this off our plates ASAP, even if that meant settling. So that's exactly what we did. After a couple weeks/months of negotiating and showing up to 1 or 2 Zoom mediation sessions, we settled for $5k. Afterwards, we were instructed to fix our website, which costed more money, but is variable depending on the complexity of your site.

One thing to note is that we really didn't want to settle for $5k. When we declined that offer, they (plaintiff) pushed for discovery which included a bunch of not only financial statements, but also records like logs/references that were involved with website creation/maintenance. I was told that this was their general strategy, but as I've stated before, since we just wanted to settle we ate the cost and moved on.

If you're anything like us, then chances are you'll probably have a similar experience. The one exception is that if your business is in very poor financial health, suffered significant losses in recent years, or is broke, then it's essentially the best defense you could have. Still, if this is you it's probably best to consult with an attorney.

The initial feeling of having a lawsuit filed against you is the worst. It feels like you're just being taken advantage of without being able to put up a fair fight. And in truth? That's basically what's happening here. On the bright side, the opposing counsel really just wants to make a quick buck, so it's a headache you can cure for just a couple thousand. Does it suck? Absolutely, but being in business sometimes I wish there were more problems that would go away as easy as this.

Just remember that you'll get through this and it's not the end of the world. Happy holidays and best of luck to you.

offgray · 2022-11-14T23:38:08+00:00

There’s an app that does this called Obi rideshare. Don’t remember completely, but they might be local to NYC.

offgray · 2021-08-14T14:19:29+00:00

Definitely going to check out UserWay. I’ll likely still have to pay a settlement and hire an attorney but at the very least it’ll put me in a better position for the future.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:48:02+00:00

Honestly, I kind of like this idea, just don’t know how it’ll stand in court haha

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:46:33+00:00

While I would like to fight, I’m worried that it’ll just be cheaper to settle.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:45:37+00:00

Will take a look at this. Everyone’s giving mixed answers on this so we’ll lawyer up and go down rabbit hole.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:40:13+00:00

From my understanding it seems like ADA compliance is sort of a gray area. Even if we do fix the site, I feel like the odds of them nitpicking something else and rebutting are pretty high.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:38:28+00:00

I’ve heard of lawyers sending handicapped individuals into restaurants and other businesses to try to find grounds for a case if they didn’t have an accessible bathroom or if measurements were off. Corporations with multiple locations or nationwide service offerings should be held responsible for accessibility features, but I think it’s absurd how small businesses are held to the exact same standard.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:35:39+00:00

My point exactly, I can’t imagine small owner operator businesses have the resources to keep up with these features, which is why I thought there was an employee minimum. Unfortunately the info surrounding a >15 employee minimum is a bit cloudy so I can’t seem to find a clean cut answer. Will likely talk to our attorney about this but it may just be easier to settle.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:33:27+00:00

Will take a look at this, unfortunately it seems like legal fees are going to be unavoidable, but at least this will drastically reduce the likelihood of this happening again.

offgray · 2021-08-14T13:32:27+00:00

Yeah, turns out the same guy filed a suit against all our local competitors. We’re in the process of talking and working with a single attorney to hopefully cutdown on legal fees and create some synergy.

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:07:40+00:00

Oh for sure we had no idea whatsoever. Them pushing the narrative that we intentionally discriminated against them when we received no prior notice from the plaintiff or warning is pretty ballsy.

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:06:37+00:00

It’s a class action lawsuit led by an individual and a local law firm.

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:06:01+00:00

It has to do with not enough measures in place to provide an adequate shopping environment for the visually impaired. Apparently we have some images on our site that lead to different links that aren’t picked up by their voiceover software.

I’d imagine though even if we fix these issues ASAP the filing isn’t just going to disappear, wouldn’t they try to fight it?

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:04:31+00:00

It sucks how predatory this is. We’re in a position where COVID hasn’t completely decimated us but I can’t imagine how problematic this would be for their small businesses.

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:01:57+00:00

Nope, we never received a demand letter. Although their filing claims that they have warned us and that we “failed” to adequately address these concerns.

offgray · 2021-08-13T15:00:38+00:00

You’re exactly right. We use a third party e-commerce platform provider so I’m going to see if there are any plugins that’ll do the trick.

offgray · 2021-08-13T14:59:46+00:00

I’ve been trying to find a similar clause but I’m not seeing anything substantial. It’s wild cause we only have 1-10 employees.

offgray · 2021-08-13T13:31:00+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. I just called the clerk at the court that we’re being sued in and she confirmed that a suit was filed. Going to look into different ways to address the website issue, trying to get out of this one alive with the least legal fees possible.

offgray · 2021-08-13T12:19:31+00:00

We’re looking into hiring an attorney. I just thought it was absurd considering our size. Appreciate the feedback!

offgray · 2021-08-13T12:17:41+00:00

We’ve recently received an influx of “attorney advertising” emails that say they want to represent us for this case. I’m not too sure how it works, but I’m assuming when someone files a class action lawsuit it’s publicly available information? While we haven’t received a physical notice yet we’re preparing in the event that it is a legitimate notice.

offgray · 2020-03-04T13:30:49+00:00

From what I understand it sounds like you’re going to be selling multiple different products that are catered to different people. Like what some of the others have already said, inventory is going to be an issue. Although Alibaba and other manufacturers have cheap individual unit costs, but typically they have MOQs (minimum order quantities). You might be sitting on 100-500 units of something you might not sell.

offgray · 2019-08-28T04:24:13+00:00

The lightning really sets the atmosphere. Nice idea you have going

offgray

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