Abusing Americans with Disabilities Act hurts small Missouri businesses | Opinion
When you run a small business, you have to worry about a lot of things. Making payroll. Finding talented and motivated workers. Keeping your inventory fully stocked. One thing you generally don’t worry about is getting sued by trial lawyers for the colors and fonts on your website.
But that’s exactly what’s happening across Missouri. The General Assembly needs to protect Main Street from these frivolous lawsuits — now.
The situation facing small businesses is the definition of ridiculous. Every week across Missouri, small business owners open their mail to find a letter from a lawyer they’ve never heard of, often from out of state. They learn their website allegedly violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The letter says they can either go to court, wasting time and money, or pay the lawyer a settlement.
There’s a name for this: shakedown. And it only gets more ridiculous the more you learn.
The lawyers say the websites violate the law because their color, font or general design make it harder for people with limited vision or blindness to use. But the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t specifically say what websites have to do. That law clearly dictates things such as the size of ramps. But there’s no federal standard for what constitutes a compliant website for, say, a restaurant.
Trial lawyers are exploiting this system at entrepreneurs’ expense. Some judges see through the charade and shoot it down. But other times, the lawsuits are allowed to continue. Whenever that happens, it inevitably hurts the job creators Missouri needs most.
Small businesses typically operate on shoestring budgets. They can’t afford an army of attorneys or compliance officers. So when they get a letter saying they’ve broken the law, they may not realize they’re being targeted for a cash grab. The lawyers often demand anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to sign a settlement agreement, so the business can avoid court. But that money would be far better spent paying workers, investing in equipment and giving back to the community.
Some small businesses realize the blatant attempt at thievery. But if they go court, they’re looking at paying three or four times as much as a settlement. That’s tens of thousands of dollars wasted on legal wrangling instead of job creating. Even if the business wins in court, it really loses. It has spent huge amounts of time and money fighting a frivolous lawsuit instead of focusing on what really matters.
That’s why trial lawyers target independent enterprises: because they see an easy target. But they shouldn’t be allowed to shake down small businesses in the first place. Missouri needs a law that lets owners fix any alleged issues on their own, without being forced to pay far more to a trial lawyer.
Other states have seen the light. Three years ago, our neighbors in Kansas passed a similar law to protect small businesses. The reform was bipartisan, sailing through the Republican Legislature to the Democratic governor, who signed it.
Now bipartisan pressure is building in Missouri. In February, the state House of Representatives unanimously passed — 149 to 0 — a bill to give small businesses relief. Later in the month, a key state Senate committee unanimously passed a similar bill. But neither chamber has said whether or when it will take up the other’s measure. After the mid-March legislative break, there will only be eight weeks to get this bill passed and to the governor. The clock is ticking.
Small businesses need this to be the legislature’s top priority. All they want is to create jobs and give back to their community. They don’t want to spend their days worrying about what’s in the mail or whether they have to go to court for a clearly frivolous lawsuit. Small businesses anchor every Main Street and community in Missouri. They deserve to do what they do best, not deal with the worst kind of shady shakedown.
Brad Jones is Missouri state director for the 501(c)(6) nonprofit National Federation of Independent Business.