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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished\\n\\nWhy A New Market for Insurers to Protect Small Businesses is Needed\\n\\nThe Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by \\nPresident George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990 with the good intentions of\\n helping people with disabilities. It is a federal civil rights law that\\n prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday \\nactivities. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the \\nsame opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, \\npurchase goods and services, and participate in state and local \\ngovernment programs.\\n\\nThe stated goal of the ADA was to eliminate discrimination against \\nindividuals with disabilities. A major source of discrimination suffered\\n by disabled individuals is the inability to gain access to public \\naccommodations such as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, gas stations\\n and the facilities of other small businesses.\\n\\nIn truth, the ADA advocates and their lawyers litigated under the ADA \\nwith the sole purpose of making money. Most had no intention or concern \\nabout the needs of those with disabilities. They took advantage of the \\nprovisions of the statute that allow individuals to enforce the \\naccessibility requirements to bring a private right of action against \\nindividual businesses and property owners.\\n\\nUnder the private right of action allowed by the ADA an aggrieved party \\ncan seek injunctive relief remedying the violation and attorney\'s fees \\nand costs. Monetary damages are not available to private parties seeking\\n to enforce the requirements of the ADA.\\n\\nBy providing differing remedies for private and public enforcement \\nrevealed to abusers a method to profit from the underlying intent of \\nCongress to prevent private plaintiffs from recovering monetary relief \\nunder the ADA. Although the ADA sets its intent clearly, Small business \\nowners have found they are added to the growing evidence of abuse of the\\n private remedies provided by the ADA where, as a small business and \\nsmall property owner, he or she either must litigate with the ADA \\nadvocates or succumb to the abusive lawsuit with a settlement. If they \\ncontact a lawyer, they will be advised that they will lose the \\nlitigation if there is even small technical errors of compliance and be \\nrequired to pay fines and attorney\\u2019s fees to the advocates and their \\nlawyers. \\xa0The litigants and their lawyers know this and will offer to \\nsettle for a sum close to reasonable so that they can negotiate down to a\\n reasonable amount.\\n\\nThe complaints, and discovery are all computer generated by the \\nadvocate\\u2019s lawyers with only the names of the plaintiff, defendants and \\nnon-compliant part of the property, changed. The litigation expense for \\nthe plaintiff and counsel is minimal and for the defendant it is \\nexcessive. Small business people don\\u2019t have the funds necessary to \\nprotect themselves from an action legally filed under the ADA and \\nconcurrently pay to bring the property into compliance.\\xa0 Agreeing to an \\noffer of settlement is the only choice available to a small business \\nowner because no liability policy provides coverage for the defense or \\nindemnity of the suit brought under the ADA.\\nThe abuse of the ADA started with its enactment. The abuse of the ADA is\\n well known to Federal District Court and state judges, who see the same\\n plaintiffs over and over again. There is nothing the judges can do, \\nbecause of the clear language of the ADA statutes, require that the \\njudge fulfill the requirements of the statute.\\n\\nAttempts have been made to curb the abuse. For example, in 2006, the \\nHastings Womens Law Journal, 17 Hastings Women\'s L.J. 93 2006 published \\nan article entitled Private Enforcement of the Americans with \\nDisabilities Act via Serial Litigation: Abusive or Commendable? by Carri\\n Becker, then a JD candidate. \\n\\nRead the full article and the proposal to market coverage at https://zalma.com/blog.\\n\\n(c) 2023 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.\\n\\n