Some unsuspecting small businesses are being served with lawsuits – and hefty legal bills – by law firms trying to capitalize on their website’s noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The Wall Street Journal reports that New York law firm Mizrahi Kroub brought more than 1,100 web accessibility cases in the U.S. last year. The firm is part of a cottage industry that has sprung up around website accessibility, often filing dozens of lawsuits on behalf of a single plaintiff against businesses that sell everything from electric bicycles to cooking kits for children.
While the law firm says it hires experts to determine whether a website is accessible and has protocols to ensure and monitor compliance once a case is settled, defense lawyers say often these are cut-and-paste pleadings designed to extract quick settlements and not make websites more accessible.
In many cases, small businesses are not aware of web-accessibility requirements or don’t know how to meet them until they are hit with a lawsuit. And while businesses can actually “win” their cases by fixing their websites or paying a relatively small fine, they are still stuck with legal bills that can rise up to $50,000, among other fees.
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