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Disability access law may get tweaked

March 2, 2012

A Southern California lawmaker is offering a proposal to change the state’s disabilities law to combat what he calls “extortion of businesses” by exploitive individuals and lawyers.

Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) introduced legislation to allow businesses more time to correct access violations before litigation could occur. Currently, lawsuits, fines and costly damages await business owners whose property does not comply with the state’s access laws, and no remedial opportunities exist. Under present law, a person with disabilities need only to locate a business establishment that is in noncompliance in order to launch a successful lawsuit.

In some cases, attorneys and individuals collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from business owners and their insurers by filing complaints.

Under Dutton’s plan, a business owner would be granted time to correct the alleged problem before financial sanctions are applied.

The bill is headed for the Senate Judiciary Committee for its first test.


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Sadly, like most laws, the original intent becomes distorted when exploited as the bureaucracy grows and grows.

We need these laws, but we need these laws to serve the purpose for which they were intended, and not to be abused.

Those without disabilities who choose to park in handicapped zones are just as guilty as the nuts that make unreasonable demands of business owners.


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Noooooooooooooo, they can’t just all of a sudden start applying common sense to laws! That will screw up everything!


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This bill is abusive as it infringes on the rights of the various-challenged to earn a living suing the world for immediate and treble damages for the right to get what they want, when they want it and to never be inconvenienced at any time in their lives, including the right to scale Mt Whitney on an ADA compliant trail.


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Extortion of businesses? Well it’s about time someone wakes up and smells the coffee!!! Let’s not forget cities too!! I posted yesteday on the Opinion piece by Gary Nemeth about the fact that Paso is getting HOSED on the handicapp acc. on street corners being off a whopping half a percent on grade!!! I hope that they get this passed.


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No kidding, I’m with you on that one. There was a local merchant that got ” hosed ” by some jerk in a wheel chair because the toilet paper in the bathroom was hung higher than the nt’l disabilities act standards called for. No good deed goes unpunished, that is for sure.


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I’m surprised that businesses don’t already have time to fix these issues. At face value this looks like a good commensense bill.


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I’m with you. Based on what is reported here this makes sense. Let’s hope that that lawmakers don’t manage to screw the pooch on this one.


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Give me a break, Typo, the ADA has been arround for 22 years. How many years do businesses need totheir fix problems? Would 100 be enough?? How about 200???


Being disabled, I regularly come across ADA violations by businesses AND government. And, they’re not just that the TP is a millimeter too high or similar piddily violations.


Having said this, I agree that the law needs to be changed to prevent people from extorting businesses for minor violations. Currently, the extorting scum walks away with his settlement money and the probem isn’t fixed.


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What are you talking about? Yes, businesses need to comply with ADA standards/rules/laws, we need the ADA. This is a good bill and an should have been in place a long time ago. Restaurants went out of business because of one person going up and down the state making frivolous lawsuits. As I said, this is a commensense bill. A business owner should have reasonable time to fix the issues before large fines or litigation are placed on them. Why are trying to fight with me?


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