Posted on 12/24/2005 6:25:50 AM PST by radar101
Lawyer tells 67 businesses they violate ADA; he wants fee.
The letters arrived in the mailboxes of 67 business owners here more than a month ago.
San Diego attorney Theodore Pinnock, who describes himself as a "warrior for the disabled," said he was "shocked" to find during a Veterans Day weekend trip to the historic town that many of the stores were in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Wheelchair ramps and handicapped parking spaces were in short supply. Doors weren't wide enough at some businesses. Some bathrooms weren't equipped properly for the disabled. The letters threatened lawsuits against virtually every business in town and claimed noncompliance with federal and state laws.
But Pinnock, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, offered a solution.
Enter into negotiations with him, pay somewhere between $2,500 and $4,000 to the attorney for his fee and agree to correct the accessibility issues at their businesses.
The alternative: Face trial and the exorbitant legal fees that would likely follow.
Community and business leaders in the town screamed, "Shakedown!"
Many have expressed a desire to fight, while others have quietly settled for as little as $300 to $800 and a promise to correct the disability problems within three years.
Usually, Pinnock said, he simply files a lawsuit, then settles out of court. The mass mailing to the Julian businesses was something new for him. He refers to it as the "Julian Experiment."
Julian, of course, has seen tough times recently. Though the town itself was saved in October 2003, hundreds of homes in the surrounding area were destroyed by the Cedar fire.
To many business owners, Pinnock's actions are like another firestorm.
Rick Campbell, owner of the most recently constructed business in Julian – The Birdwatcher store – speaks pointedly.
"I think what he's doing is nothing short of criminal," Campbell said.
"It's a loophole in the law that demands to be closed immediately. It hurts all businesses, but big players like Target can absorb this stuff. He's going after the little guys now and hurting families." Campbell's store was built in 1997 and is a replica of the Pioneer Hotel, which burned to the ground in 1892. "I comply 100 percent with county and state requirements or else it wouldn't have passed code," he said.
Pinnock, he said, is going after his business based on inadequate signage. "Nit-picking stuff," Campbell calls it.
The Americans With Disabilities Act has been federal law for 15 years, but it remains largely up to people like Pinnock to ensure that it works. Even some of the sharpest foes of these types of lawsuits acknowledge that the vast majority of the complaints are legitimate.
With the law's exacting standards, violations are easy to find, and some experts estimate less than 2 percent of public buildings are in compliance.
Mass mailing Pinnock said he decided to do the mass mailing of the ADA notice letters to Julian businesses because the way he's gone about it in the past hasn't corrected problems fast enough. "We've done it piecemeal in the past," he said. A lawsuit here, a lawsuit there. "It would take years and years for everyone to come into compliance that way. We need a new way."
He said he is pro small business and feels that the state and federal governments should do more to make business owners aware of disability laws.
He also said he feels for the community of Julian.
"We know that people in Julian are suffering. However, the ADA was passed 13 years before the fire. They should have been in compliance. We are mindful of the problems caused by the fire and we're settling for something that is more than reasonable."
Some of the businesses have hired their own lawyers, but most are represented by one of two attorneys. Those represented by Carol Brophy, a San Francisco lawyer, have either already settled or are expected to settle soon, Pinnock said, and Brophy agreed.
Those who are represented by James Mason, a lawyer with San Diego-based Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, have taken a harder stance.
Mason represents about 40 of the businesses. He said what rankles his clients isn't having to comply with access laws, but having to pay Pinnock a fee.
"My clients from Day One have agreed to do compliance," he said. "The tricky issues in Julian involve the historic designation of the town. These people are going to do everything that's readily achievable. What's really needed is time to have a consultant analyze the impact of the historical component of the particular business."
Mason said many of the business owners were hit hard by the fire and were suffering financial duress even before Pinnock came into their lives.
"They have limited resources and would rather spend money on access issues than give it to an attorney."
On Monday, Pinnock filed a class-action lawsuit against the businesses that haven't already settled.
He said on Wednesday that he would refile the suit next week because the business he used as the prime example for the class action has now decided to settle.
Dick Thilken, president of the Julian Chamber of Commerce, said it's not right to say the holdout businesses are fighting Pinnock.
"We're encouraging our membership to do what we can to bring things up to compliance where it's feasible. We're looking for some expertise to tell us what we can and we can't do."
He said negotiations are continuing.
Thilken said the letters came as a "total shock" to the business owners. "I feel that the community always has been sensitive to people with disabilities. There have been very few instances over the years where people have complained."
Hundreds of cases Pinnock has a severe speech impediment and was interviewed with the help of an interpreter. He said that since the Julian letters went out, his life has been threatened by an anonymous caller and complaints have been filed against him with the state bar. But Pinnock, who has built a successful practice pursuing hundreds of cases similar to this for more than a decade, said all he is doing is working within the framework of the law.
In fact, he says, by giving the business owners an option to avoid court, he was acting in their best financial interest.
He says he has done nothing unethical. "All lawyers recover fees and damages. If the public doesn't like that, take it up with the lawmakers. I only apply the law."
While most business owners in Julian are upset about the way Pinnock has gone about his business, some do understand why he is doing it.
"On one hand, we needed to be made aware of the issue, which he did," said Elke Mussen, owner of Julian Drug Store and Candy Mine. "But it seems like he's doing this more or less professionally. I think it should be done differently."
Mussen's store is in one of the oldest existing brick buildings in Southern California, built in 1886.
"It's pretty impossible for a wheelchair," she said.
She said she plans to build a ramp by a side door. "We should have done this a long time ago, but it was never really brought to our attention. I didn't even know this mandate existed."
J. Harry Jones: (760) 737-7579; jharry.jones@uniontrib.com
How many times have you gone to shop, seen 8 empty disabled parking spaces, and the rest full?
Sometimes I have trouble walking but don't have a blue card, won't get one.
One source of this problem is the feeling of entitlement. Not everything in life is equal. Can't be.
This is an historic town. The buildings deserve to be preserved, and not altered.
This is another idea run amuck.
I had a friend who bought an old place of business. He was opening a car parts store.He remodeled and was about ready to open when the County inspections came in. He had to widen the front door, He had to make all the aisles where his parts were stored handicapped available, he had to redo his bathroom which is only for employees. All this had to be done just in case in the future some handicapped person applied for a job. All money thrown away when he was on a tight budget to begin with. He has been in business for 10 years and I dont think a handicapped person has come in looking for a carbureter yet. Another friend was working for the government she paid for a parking space in the government building where she worked. They came in and said they needed more space for handicapped parking and took her space. she had to go 3 blocks away to park. So she went to her Doctor got a handicapped sign from him and now she parks closer than her old spot and she doesnt have to pay anything.
"Well, I give him credit for finding a shakedown niche that Jesse Jackson hasn't taken yet."
Look to see jesse in a wheelchair come next year.
Leave it to an attorney come up with a legal extortion scam.
We never heard from him again. Fascist POS.
Thank you, George H. W. Bush for signing this into law. Must run in the family or something.
Sounds like the lawyer needs a bullet behind the ear.
You Americans are crazy. In Israel we have an anti-amublance-chaser law that makes it illegal for a lawyer to repeatedly file these kinds of suits. If they try, they lose their license are faced with huge civil and even criminal penalties. This man should be in jail.
Julian needs to post a sign at each end of town stating "handicapped not allowed in this town".
The misconception is that because of the ADA - everybody is REQUIRED to make these adjustments.
NOT TRUE!!
The law says that you only have to make those adjustments IF SOMEONE COMPLAINS .. and not a day before.
In the City of San Diego, we have a disabled couple who live on this law. They purposely go around to all the restaurants in town, and when the ADA adjustments have not been made - they sue.
Local news ping.
Exactly. The lawyer found his lottery.
>>>ADA is one of the worst laws ever enacted. Bob Dole should be ashamed of himself.<<<
Bob Dole is not to be blamed for the ADA. Tom 'DungHeap' Harkin is.
Most supermarkets and stores/and malls have 20 plus handicap spaces to park in. It's a joke. One can sit there watching people pull into those spaces with the handicap placard, and no one gets in or out of their cars using wheelchairs or crutches. All seem to walk perfectly fine.
We always watch those that use these parking spots. Very seldom does anyone ever park there that actually needs to.
Israel just moved way up the list of possible places to retire to for me.
I understand what you are saying, but sometimes you can't tell a person's disability by looking at them. I had a dear friend who had a placard because she had respiratory problems to the point she could not walk far; she would just lose her breath. She got a lot of dirty looks for using handicapped spaces, but then her illness progressed to the point where she could no longer walk even short distances and had to get a scooter.
My husband has never gotten a placard, but is eligible- he can walk also; but only short distances. His legs were injured by a mine in Vietnam, as he ages his joints hurt badly if he has to walk far at all. My sister had one when she was terminal with cancer- you just really can't always tell by looking who really needs the handicapped spaces.
Of course, I agree. However, when there are 50 handicapped parking stalls at the local mall or where ever, it's clear after watching people come and go, walking as normal as any perfectly healthy person, very few are legitimately physically handicapped to the point where they need or require front row parking.
On the flip side of that, many times I've seen supermarkets where the parking lot is jammed where there are few if any available places to park, yet there are 20 unoccupied handicapped spots. I could see 2 or 4 parking bays for those that honestly need it, but now there are dozens. It's ridicules.
I have often wondered how many times someone that is wheelchair bound can not find an empty handicapped parking spot because they are all taken by people that got their physician to sign off for a placard for less than legitimate reasons.
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