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ADA Title III lawsuits decline amid pandemic lockdowns

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ADA

The number of lawsuits filed in federal courts under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodation, dropped during the first half of the year amid pandemic shutdowns but is expected to pick back up, a law firm said in a survey released Wednesday.

In the first six months of the year, 4,759 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal court, a 15% decline from 5,592 filed in the first half of 2019, Chicago-based law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP said in its ADA Title III News & Insights blog.

The decrease was largely due to significantly fewer cases filed in April and May, when most of the country was shut down, the law firm said. The number rebounded, however, in June and July. 

“Based on this data, we predict that 2020 will end with fewer lawsuits than in 2019 but expect numbers to pick back up with the country and courts slowly reopening,” for a year-end decrease that will likely be much less than 15%, the firm said.

California, New York and Florida continued to lead the country in the number of federal filings, with 2,702, 756 and 574 lawsuits filed, respectively, during the first half, according to the report.

The report said that based on the cases Seyfarth sees in its practice, most lawsuits concern allegedly inaccessible physical facilities or websites, or hotel reservations websites that do not have sufficient accessibility information about their rooms and common areas.