With the courts re-opening, we are starting to see a serious increase in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits. The latest trend we have seen is an increase in is “drive by” lawsuits where the plaintiff or their attorney do not enter the premises. It appears that some litigants are using Google Street View to identify obvious ADA violations at the exterior of a business and proceeding to file lawsuits.
In addition to physical ADA violations, we are also seeing an uptick in ADA claims regarding website accessibility. Similar to “drive by” lawsuits, attorneys are reviewing websites for accessibility issues and proceeding to file suit. Please see the attached article for more information on ADA lawsuits.
Your best defense is to ensure that your physical location and website are ADA compliant. From an insurance standpoint, an Employment Practices Liability (EPL) policy may provide defense for these types of claims. Internally, we use a third party service to maintain ADA compliance on our own website and we would be happy to provide some additional information upon request.
If you do not currently carry Employment Practices, we strongly recommend considering adding this type of policy to your insurance portfolio. For information on Employment Practices Liability insurance, please contact us today.