The Blog of William D. Goren, J.D. LL.M.
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Introductory Comments
Last week the Department of Justice as intervenor and the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of itself and two plaintiffs entered into a consent decree with H&R Block and the entity that runs its website. While the defendant did not admit any liability, they did agree to pay $22,500 to…
In the first and second editions of my book, understanding the ADA, I cited to the case of Burch v. Coca-Cola Company, 119 F.3d 305 (5th Cir. 1997), for the proposition that temporary disabilities are not protected by the ADA. However, I did say as a preventive manner, it made sense to treat temporary…
Last week, the Department of Justice proposed rules implementing title II and title III of the ADA in light of the amendments to the ADA. I’m not going to go into depth here, but I thought I’d go over some particularly significant items in the proposed rule. Of course, what follows is not comprehensive and…
Erik Beard, an attorney with the law firm of Wiggin and Dana and who has a blog on legal issues affecting amusement parks , has been talking for some time about a case out of the central district of California that squarely presents the issue of whether amusement park rides must be accessible to persons…
As is my practice, I have divided this blog entry into four parts: the facts of the case; the issues; the court’s reasoning; and the takeaways. Feel free to read some or all of the blog entry.
Consider the following:
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Facts:
Person has a favorite restaurant. Subsequently, he is involved in an accident and…
The ADA and alternative dispute resolution are two concepts that mesh very well together. The ADA itself has language in it encouraging dispute resolution. In fact, both the EEOC and the Department of Justice have mediation programs dealing with ADA lawsuits. Also, with the courts having a very favorable view towards arbitrating claims, arbitration has…
The issue of whether the Internet has to be accessible to a person with a disability is an issue that we have discussed before. One of the cases out there is the case of Access Now v. Southwest Airlines, 227 F. Supp. 2d 1312 (S.D. Fla. 2002), where the Southern District of Florida…
Without exception, or maybe a rare one, every day my blog entry on service dogs and the Department of Justice regulations dealing with them with respect to title II and title III entities, gets at least one visit from someone. That blog entry deals with the federal approach to service dogs with respect to title…
I do not normally blog more than once a week. You would be surprised how time-consuming writing a blog entry really is. Also, I don’t like to have blog entries that cannibalize each other. Rather, I like to have a blog entry get a chance to stand on its own for a while. That gives…
Consider: Employee/volunteer/Intern… with a disability is sexually harassing his or her coworkers. The disability is such that the employee/volunteer is unlikely to stop. The hiring authority terminates the employee/volunteer and the employee/volunteer sues the hiring authority for disability discrimination. This sounds very much like what could’ve been the case with the former Mayor of San…