The cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles this week filed a civil suit against the San Diego-based law firm Potter Handy, claiming it is illegally filing thousands of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims around the state without the legal standing required.
The law firm is sneakily getting around California's Unruh Act, the cities insist, whose procedural requirements would in many cases forbid these cases from getting to state court. The Unruh Act also allows plaintiffs to hit ADA violators with a minimum $4,000 damages demand per violation above and beyond any settlement, unlike the federal ADA.
