On June 13th, Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) joined California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, the Sacramento Metro Chamber and National Federation for Independent Business-California for a roundtable discussion with business leaders about his legislation to stop predatory lawsuits alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This event was part of CALA’s nationwide Create Jobs, Not Lawsuits (CJNL) tour.
The CJNL tour brings attention to the cost of litigation and the impact it has on our economy and local jobs. California needs to be focused on job creation, and legal reform has been shown to create jobs.
Rep. Lungren’s bill to stop predatory ADA lawsuits is called HR 3356, the ACCESS (ADA Compliance for Customer Entry to Stores and Services) Act. This bill would help facilitate ADA compliance by requiring plaintiffs who intend to sue businesses for ADA violations to provide notice of ADA violations to the business they are targeting. The notice must be specific enough that the business owners/operators know how they have violated access standards and what actions they must take to bring their business into compliance. Business owners/operators must provide a written response outlining the improvements they will make to comply with the ADA within 60 days receipt of the final notice, and then have 120 days to make the improvements. If the improvements have not been made in 120 days, legal action could move forward.
The roundtable was attended by dozens of business owners and the media. HR 3356 is scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on June 27th at 1:30 p.m. and CALA will have supporters testify in support of this measure. One of them is Lee Ky, a small business owner from Reedley, CA and the other is David Peters, an attorney who has defended hundreds of business owners against abusive ADA lawsuits.
If your Congressman has not agreed to support this measure please email or call him or her and encourage him or her to do so. Abusive ADA lawsuits are hurting our state’s small businesses and hurting job growth. HR 3356 is a step toward stopping these lawsuits, helping small businesses grow and creating jobs.