SACRAMENTO– The recent swell of lawsuits in the Central Valley filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act has had a distressing impact on businesses, even forcing some to shut their doors. Predatory lawyers from outside of our community are coming in and demanding considerable sums of money from local businesses under the auspices of damages endured by their clients.
“Today, I am happy to announce the introduction of Senate Bill 67. This important piece of legislation will reduce the profit incentive to file frivolous lawsuits based on minor and technical deficiencies and allow businesses more time to correct them,” said Senator Galgiani. “The filing of these lawsuits is having a devastating financial impact on businesses that comply with the spirit of the law, but get an ‘A-‘ instead of an ‘A+’.”
SB 67 would require a plaintiff bringing a lawsuit against a small business under the ADA to provide evidence of having suffered actual harm. Under SB 67 any judgment would have to be based on the actual harm rather than the arbitrary statutory fines that are currently imposed. The bill would also increase the time period to correct ADA deficiencies from 60 days to 120 days.
“The original intent of the ADA was a good one – to ensure businesses provide accommodations to their customers who have disabilities. Many business owners, particularly those in older buildings, have already spent thousands and thousands of dollars on renovations. However, in some cases it is impossible to comply because some buildings were constructed decades before the law went into effect. The law was not designed to be a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme for predatory lawyers,” Galgiani continued. “My motivation for introducing SB 67 is to limit these ‘shakedown’ lawsuits and protect California business from exploitation.”
Here is a look at the SB67 Text:
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 55.54 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
55.54.
(a) (1) An attorney who causes a summons and complaint to be served in an action that includes a construction-related accessibility claim, including, but not limited to, a claim brought under Section 51, 54, 54.1, or 55, shall, at the same time, cause to be served a copy of the application form specified in subdivision (c) and a copy of the following notice, including, until January 1, 2013, the bracketed text, to the defendant on separate papers that shall be served with the summons and complaint:
(B)All construction-related violations giving rise to the claim have been corrected, or will be corrected within 30 days of the complaint being served upon the defendant.
(5)An application for an early evaluation conference and stay by a small business defendant under paragraph (4) shall include evidence showing correction of all violations within 30 days of the service of the complaint and served upon the plaintiff with the reply unless the application is filed prior to completion of the corrections. In that event, the evidence shall be provided to the court and served upon the plaintiff within 10 days of the court order as provided in paragraph (4) of subdivision (d). This paragraph shall not be construed to extend the permissible time under subdivision (f) of Section 55.56 to make the corrections.
(6)
(7)
of Proceedings and Early Evaluation Conference appear
in the hard-copy publication of the chaptered bill.
See pages 22 to 24 of Chapter 383, Statutes of 2012.
PRINTER PLEASE NOTE: TIP-IN MATERIAL TO BE INSERTED(8)
(C)Directs a defendant described by subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) who has filed a declaration stating that the violation or violations have been corrected, or will be corrected within 30 days of service of the complaint to file with the court and serve on the plaintiff within 10 days after issuance of the court order evidence of correction of the violation or violations, if that evidence showing correction was not filed previously with the application and served on the plaintiff.
(ii)The violation or violations giving rise to the claim have been corrected, or will be corrected within 30 days of the complaint being served.
(B)For a defendant who is a small business that has filed a declaration stating that all the violations have been corrected, or will be corrected within 30 days of the service of the complaint, file with the court and serve on the plaintiff evidence showing correction of the violation or violations within 10 calendar days after issuance of the court order, if that evidence showing correction was not filed previously with the application and served on the plaintiff.
SEC. 2.
Section 55.56 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
55.56.
(a) Statutory Subject to the limitation provided in subdivision (f), statutory damages under either subdivision (a) of Section 52 or subdivision (a) of Section 54.3 may be recovered in a construction-related accessibility claim against a place of public accommodation only if a violation or violations of one or more construction-related accessibility standards denied the plaintiff full and equal access to the place of public accommodation on a particular occasion.