A hearing-impaired attorney has filed a class action lawsuit against a Florida company that provides continuing legal education courses online, alleging the firm violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by not providing captioning for its courses.
The Atlanta-based attorney, William Goren, is the plaintiff in the federal lawsuit filed April 22 in the Middle District of Florida. The complaint alleges that LawPracticeCLE, which is located in Lakewood Ranch, violated a section of the ADA that bars people from offering exams or courses for professional licensing or certification “in a place and manner” that makes them inaccessible to those with disabilities.
The complaint is distinct from other types of ADA litigation, such as lawsuits related to ensuring that public accommodations are accessible to the disabled, according to Goren.
“This lawsuit is huge …” Goren told the Florida Record. “What this lawsuit is doing is that there is a section of ADA that talks about accessibility for courses related to licensing, and that has nothing to do with whether it is a place of accommodation or not, which is a hotly disputed area of litigation.”
The complaint seeks certification of the class described in the lawsuit as deaf and hard-of-hearing lawyers who are required to obtain continuing legal education credits in jurisdictions that accept courses offered by the defendant. Such individuals need captioning or other aides in order to get full benefit from LawPracticeCLE’s online courses, according to the lawsuit.
“The question presented by this case is whether that (ADA) provision applies to online content providers like LPCLE that have no physical presence and may therefore not be ‘places of public accommodation’ as that term is used in the ADA,” the complaint says.
The outcome of the litigation may have effects beyond the legal profession, according to Goren.
“For any profession that has continuing education requirements, this would be a precedent for that,” he said.
Since the lawsuit was filed, LawPracticeCLE has offered captioning on courses produced since August 2021, but the vast majority of its archived materials have not been captioned, according to the lawsuit.
“This case has been going on awhile,” Goren said. “We asked to get captioning, and they have resisted from the get-go.”