We continue to report on the plethora of serial plaintiffs who have collectively filed thousands of website accessibility lawsuits, primarily against small businesses, in state and federal courts throughout the country. These lawsuits generally allege that these businesses’ websites are inaccessible to visually impaired individuals who use screen-reading software, thus denying them full and equal access to the goods or services offered on the websites.
There has been a recent surge in lawsuits filed by several of these plaintiffs, including Charity Danso, Silvia Martinez, Donna Hedges, Braulio Thorne, Thomas Genwright, and Maricela Donet, who, according to court records, have collectively filed more than 350 website accessibility lawsuits, many of which were filed in recent months.
- Danso filed eight new lawsuits on April 25, 2024 (and 13 lawsuits in total since November 2023), and Martinez has filed 27 new lawsuits in 2024 (and 52 lawsuits in total since September 2023). They are represented by Stein Saks, PLLC, which has filed more than 1,600 similar lawsuits.
- Hedges has filed six new lawsuits since April 9, 2024 (and 103 lawsuits in total since July 2022), and Thorne has filed eight new lawsuits since March 25, 2024 (and 116 lawsuits in total since 2019). They are represented by Gottlieb & Associates, which has filed more than 1,700 similar lawsuits.
- Genwright has filed eight new lawsuits in 2024 (and 28 lawsuits in total since June 2022), and Donet has filed 28 new lawsuits in 2024 (and 60 lawsuits in total since January 2023). They are represented by Mizrahi Kroub LLP, which has filed more than 3,000 similar lawsuits in federal court and, recently, hundreds more in New York State courts.
As we have reported on numerous occasions, both state and federal lawmakers have taken steps in recent years to curb website accessibility lawsuits; however, to date, no legislation has been passed. In the absence of legislation or regulations promulgated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), we recommend that businesses operating a website, mobile application, or both take steps to ensure that these online systems are accessible to users with disabilities and otherwise comply with federal, state, and local disability laws in accordance with DOJ guidance issued in March 2022.
In the unfortunate event your business is served with one of these website accessibility lawsuits, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at Barclay Damon. We will continue to monitor the development of these cases.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this alert, please contact Rob Thorpe, partner, at rthorpe@barclaydamon.com, or another member of the firm’s Labor & Employment or Commercial Litigation Practice Areas or Hotels, Hospitality & Food Service Team.
The Labor & Employment Podcast is an award-winning biweekly Barclay Damon Live presentation that keeps you updated on all things employees. Our Barclay Damon hosts and their guests discuss state and federal anti-harassment and discrimination laws; wage and hour and misclassification audits; onboarding, disciplining, and offboarding employees; enforcing restrictive covenants; and other topics of interest to employers. Click here to watch or listen to the Labor & Employment Podcast, and click here to watch or listen to Barclay Damon’s other award-winning podcast series, Cyber Sip™.