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.
Several relatively new plaintiffs are now on the scene, including Norberto Vega, Wislande Claude, Justin Valencia, Roberto Solis, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zebone Brown, and Dale Layne, who, according to court records, have collectively filed 66 website accessibility lawsuits within the last few months. Specifically, Vega has filed five lawsuits since May 21, 2024; Claude has filed four lawsuits, all on July 26, 2024; Valencia has filed 10 lawsuits since June 28, 2024; Solis has filed six lawsuits since June 27, 2024; Fernandez has filed 28 lawsuits since February 16, 2024; Brown has filed eight lawsuits since June 27, 2024; and Layne has filed five lawsuits, all on June 28, 2024. Each of the above-named plaintiffs are represented by Stein Saks, PLLC, which has filed more than 2,000 website accessibility lawsuits since 2019.
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 & Complex Trials Practice Areas or Hotels, Hospitality & Food Service Team.
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