[NFBMT] Article on H.R. 620 from AARP

Sat Mar 10 10:37:05 UTC 2018

This is what we are facing.  We need to be prepared.  Joy 

House Passes Bill to Weaken Disability Protections

Advocates say measure would undermine the Americans With Disabilities Act

by Barbara A. Gabriel, AARP,

February 19, 2018|Comments: 58

man sitting on a wheelchair while another person is pushing him 

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Lack of mobility is the most common disability among older Americans.

A bill that threatens to weaken the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by making it more difficult to prove the law has been violated passed the House of Representatives Thursday. The measure would force 16 million older

Americans with disabilities to comply with onerous new rules in order to enforce their civil rights.

The bill requires people with disabilities who want to sue over their inability to access specific businesses to detail in writing how they were denied

access and which sections of the ADA they believe were violated. Business owners would then have 60 days to acknowledge the problem and an additional 60

days to either correct it or make “substantial progress.” The bill does not set a deadline for a business to fix the problem.

Advocates for people with disabilities were outraged by the House’s action. As House members cast their votes, protesters in the visitors’ gallery tried

to drown out the proceedings by chanting, “Hands off ADA! Don’t take our rights away!” The ADA was enacted in 1990.

“We are extremely disappointed and downright angry to see this blatant attack on the civil rights of people with disabilities to access places of public

accommodation,” the American Association of People With Disabilities said in a statement after the vote.

The bill, “ADA Education and Reform Act,” passed the House by a vote of 225-192. Lawmakers who support the measure say its intent is to protect the interests

of business owners by making it more difficult for lawyers to file unfounded ADA lawsuits. 

But in a letter to House leadership, Joyce Rogers, senior vice president of government affairs at AARP, said that while frivolous lawsuits have been a problem in several states, that does

not justify the imposition of difficult notice requirements and lengthy waiting periods. Rogers pointed out that states already can impose sanctions on

lawyers for frivolous litigation. 

Rogers also emphasized the importance of the ADA in preserving the quality of life of older Americans with disabilities: “Mobility is the most common disability

among older Americans,” she wrote. “Of those age 65-plus with a disability [about 40 percent of older adults], two-thirds report trouble walking or climbing.”

No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. If this measure were to become law, it would have a significant impact on older adults with disabilities.

“People of all abilities and ages should be able to enjoy services and community features that meet their needs, allowing them to live in the setting of

their choice,” Rogers wrote.

Comments

1. 11 days ago: This article / opinion is totally wrong. Lawyers are out of control suing businesses. 

---“McCarthy has filed more than 400 disability lawsuits against California businesses, including 91 in the past year."

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/25/ada-lawsuit-abuse-remains-a-problem-2/

2.  13 days ago:  I have a wife and lost a daughter with disabilities and can sympathize with the difficulties they faced.  But, I also worked for 12 years for  a wonderful

couple who were victimized by one of several attorneys who prey on small businesses using the ADA as a weapon to intimidate such people into paying tens

of thousands of dollars to avoid prosecution.   The attorney in this case had filed over 200 frivolous lawsuits at the time my employers chose to fight

the case.   The attorney sent a team of investigators to examine the property and came up with a list of over 40 violations and hoped to win with a preponderance

of evidence.  13 of the items were minor and easily remedied. 14 were out and out lies easily disproven.  The others were ridiculous (e.g., the braille

handicapped sign on the door was almost 2 inches too high compared to the floor -- the restroom did not have a locking inside chamber for the toilet for

only one stall even though the outside door could be locked from inside. The complainant in the case was also the complainant in many of the cases the

attorney had filed. 

The judge eventually threw out the case because the complainant was not familiar with the 42 violations she had alleged occurred.  Nevertheless, it cost

my employers lost over $100,000 to defend the case.   They could have saved half of that by paying the blood money the attorney demanded to drop the case.

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

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