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Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with the manager for a modest property that included restaurants and a small grocery chain. He was livid and not unreasonably so. Despite his efforts to always do the right thing, he was caught up in an ambush Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) suit that could have been prevented.

Several months earlier, he had received a letter from an attorney who claimed to represent a “John Doe” who was confned to a wheel chair. His client had visited one of the restaurants and the grocery store on this property and documented that they failed to meet several ADA requirements. While the restrooms were constructed to ADA standards, the grab bars adjacent to the commode were slightly higher than the ADA Code allowed.

The attorney offered an opportunity to avoid litigation if the property manager would agree to pay $6,000 plus costs for his “investigation” of the premises and immediately retroft the grab bar to comply with ADA standards. Additionally, he would be required to allow for quarterly visits by the plaintiff for which the plaintiff would be compensated several hundred dollars for each visit over a three-year period. These visits were to “ensure future compliance” with ADA regulations.

The property manager spent several days conducting his own research and was deeply troubled with what he found. The local attorney was actually affliated with a larger frm out of Florida that specialized in setting up such arrangements to leverage the ADA law and unfairly, but legally, paint unsuspecting small business operators

into a corner. They rightly concluded that the majority of operators would simply pay to make these actions go away.

In this case, the Columbus property manager and his tenants ultimately paid more than $13,000 to settle the matter. Had he simply been approached to make the needed changes to be in full compliance with ADA, he would have done so. However, this was never about complying with ADA; it was about attorneys choosing to use the system to their fnancial advantage.

In fact, the property manager learned that there are law frms conducting seminars on this very practice and recruiting other law frms around the country to participate in this ethically challenged, but legal, practice. I was not able to learn what percentage of the settlement was returned to the respective law frms but the plaintiff who was allegedly handicapped retained $1,000 for his troubles.

I share this episode with you so that you are aware of the practice and can take action now to ensure you are in compliance with ADA regulations. Here is a convenient link - http://www.ada.gov/ - you can use to access the ADA information you need to ensure you are in compliance. Hopefully, this information can protect you from an ambush assault on your business and your bank account.

By Geoff Hetrick, President & CEO, Ohio Restaurant Association

Failure to Comply with ADA Regulations Can be Costly

Protecting Your Bottom Line

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