The filing of Americans With Disabilities Act lawsuits in Florida over issues such as inadequate access to buildings or websites declined more than 43% between mid-2019 and mid-2021, according to a tally by the Seyfarth Shaw law firm.
Florida’s ADA Title III lawsuits bucked the national trend, according to a blog post on the Lexology website co-authored by attorney Minh Vu. Over the same period, national ADA filings were up 11.2%, with California filings up by nearly 27%, the law firm’s analysis shows.
“These numbers include Title III lawsuits filed on all grounds -- physical facilities, websites and mobile applications, service animals, sign language interpreters, mask-wearing requirements, hotel reservations websites and more,” the blog post states.
There may be several reasons for the drop in Florida ADA filings over the past two years, according to Vu. They include less activity by Florida attorneys who had specialized in ADA lawsuits, she said.
“The numbers are highly attorney-driven,” Vu told the Florida Record.
One attorney, Scott Richard Dinin of Miami, had brought 26 questionable ADA cases in the state’s Southern District, according to the Florida Bar. He was suspended for 18 months in 2020 in part for charging excessive fees and then splitting them with a client who was not an attorney – something that violates legal ethics rules.
“We are also seeing other Florida-based attorneys focusing on other jurisdictions,” such as Nevada and New York, Vu said. The focus on ADA cases in other states means fewer lawsuits filed against Florida businesses, she said.
Another reason for the downturn in Florida ADA cases is that attorneys are often choosing to send demand letters to potential defendants rather than immediately pursuing litigation, according to Vu.
“They extract money from businesses that way rather than having to actually file a lawsuit,” she said.
People often may refer to ADA lawsuits as “frivolous,” but that term may not be totally accurate, according to Vu, since ADA noncompliance incidents are fairly easy to find.
“What they’re really saying is lawsuits are filed by people not really affected by the problem or who really don’t care about a disability and are just trying to make their lawyers money,” she said.
Nationally, 1,240 ADA lawsuits were filed in March, setting a monthly record, according to the law firm’s data.
“We predict a new record will be set (nationally), and the number of lawsuits will exceed 12,000” in 2021, the blog post states.