Pennsylvania ranked among the top 10 states in the nation during 2016 as a location for plaintiffs to file lawsuits alleging Title III violations – those dealing with a perceived lack of access to public accommodations and commercial facilities – of the Americans With Disabilities Act, attorneys and a librarian at the legal firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP wrote Monday (Jan. 23, 2017).
Seyfarth partners Minh N. Vu and Kristina M. Launey, and librarian Susan Ryan, reported more than 6,600 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal courts during the year just ended, a 37-percent increase over 2015. They cited two reasons:
- “Newcomers filing (the most common) physical accessibility lawsuits,” and
- “A recent proliferation of plaintiffs and attorneys filing website accessibility lawsuits.” Generally, they claim websites and/or mobile apps are inaccessible to those with certain disabilities.
California tops the list with the number of Title II suits, 2,468, filed last year. Pennsylvania ranked eighth at 102 lawsuits. And, they authors add ominously, “the Title III trend shows no signs of cooling down in 2017.”
- Read the piece by Vu, Launey, and Ryan, titled “ADA Title III Lawsuits Increase by 37 Percent in 2016,” and published Jan. 26 on Lexology, here.
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