Ada Pool Lift Lawsuit

The plaintiff theresa brooke has filed over 70 ada lawsuits against southern california hotels in the past 6 weeks every single one of which in boilerplate fashion alleges ada violations based on inaccessible hotel pools and spas.

Ada pool lift lawsuit.

Four of the lawsuits were filed on june 14 in federal court in minneapolis and a fifth in. Because lifts are seen by many as the most practical and least expensive solution they have been the most popular. Some people just use google to look at your pool and see there s no lift said marty orlick chair of the ada compliance and defense group at san francisco law firm jeffer mangels butler mitchell. The bad news is pool lifts have spawned an unforeseen and aggressive legal subculture of attorneys and plaintiffs who are bringing a barrage of lawsuits against hotel owners.

A recent 60 minutes episode examined the growing litany of lawsuits that use the americans with disabilities act ada to demand payment from small businesses. 31 2013 most public pools and spas must have a means of disabled access with larger vessels needing two methods. Amy kjose anderson january 24 2017. If a wheelchair bound person checks into or tries to check into a hotel and discovers no lift at the pool they have suffered a harm according to the ada.

In some cases these lawsuits are collected from the comfort of the attorney s car or even couch driving by handicapped parking spots to assess violations or using google earth to find motels without accessible pool lifts for the disabled. At that time we predicted that there could be a 40 increase in the number of lawsuits filed in 2014 based on 6 seyfarth s minh vu provides insight into pool lifts suits for hotel news now. In each case brooke alleges she called the hotels to inquire whether the pool or jacuzzi had a lift or other means of access for disabled persons and the representative informed her that it. Brooke s lawsuit sought a court order requiring the facility to make all its pool facilities ada compliant as well as attorney fees legal costs and damages of at least 12 500.

Five new lawsuits were recently filed against hotels under the recently effective pool lift regulation. Failure to have a lift is a clear. If there was a pool lift plaintiff claims she would stay at the hotel in the future. A google lawsuit is where the suspicion at least is that the property was spotted on google google earth google maps whatever the case may be and you could see certain things.