Recently, Pacific Trial Attorneys has been pursuing claims against craft breweries throughout California for alleged Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California Unruh Act website violations.
Pacific Trial Attorneys is a well-known plaintiff's law firm that has filed hundreds of ADA lawsuits against various businesses, often using the same few disabled plaintiffs, such as Dominick Martin and Rusty Rendon. The lawsuits essentially state that the craft brewery's website is not accessible for blind users, and thus, violates the ADA and/or California Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The letter generally looks like this:
Generally, individuals with vision limitations use screen reading software that scans a webpage and reads it aloud to them. Websites can be coded in such a way as to be more or less compatible with screen reading software.
However, websites do not need to perfectly conform to the nongovernmental WCAG standards in order to comply with the ADA. See our recent article The ADA Does Not Require Website Accessibility Perfection.
Pacific Trial Attorneys will generally file a lawsuit in state court if a satisfactory response to the initial complaint letter is not received. If you have received a letter like this from Pacific Trial Attorneys, take it seriously and reach out to JMBM or other capable ADA defense counsel who have successfully defended such claims.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.