Can You Sue in Small Claims Court for Americans With Disability Act Violations?

In California Civil Code Sections 51, 54.1 and 54.2 protect people with disabilities from Discrimination. This law is also known as the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act). The law Requires every business of what ever nature to not treat you in an inferior manner merely because you are disabled (the Unruh Act not Civil Code Section 51). The specific Sections that I will be dealing with is Civil Code Section 54.1 which is similar to Civil Code Section 51 which protects a disabled persons right to full and free access just like other members of the public to accommodations, advantages and facilities of places that are open to the General Public. This is obviously very broad and some examples would be such places as hospitals, Airports, Bus Stations, Doctors Offices, Hospitals, Stores of every type that are open for business to the General Public, amusement parks but in some cases you may not be able to ride on some rides if they are to dangerous for someone with your type of disability and there is not reasonable way to accommodate you.

What are some types of discrimination? Well you can go to the those sections your self and read about them all but a few would be such things as a door that is to difficult to open to a public facility by a disabled person and that could be an entrance or a restroom or even exits. The law sets forth how many pounds of pressure that is allowed to open and close a door so as to make places more accessible to the disabled. Other things such as the height of check out counters in grocery stores to the elevation of sinks and mirrors and soap dispensers in bathrooms would be included. Parking places are to be allocated close to enterences for the disabled and there is a ration of how many should be allocated for the disabled in relation to general parking available. We have all see curbs cut down for wheel chair access on sidewalks and these are the result of these code sections.

Can you use small claims court to sue when you feel you have been discriminated against? The answer is clearly yes as long as you are not looking for a monetary award beyond the small claims court limits of $7,500.00. The amount that is typically recovered in small claims court is 3 times the amount of the disabled persons actual loss or $1,000.00 whichever is greater. So if the court feels that you have been discriminated against then you will at least recover $1,000.00 but NOTE if your case is based on violation of the Unruh Act then the court can award you at least $4,000.00 but the court can not issue restraining orders or injunctions requiring the business owner to fix the violations. You will only be able to recover damages which you can prove or which the code allows for.

A public place of accommodation is a business that is open to the public and provides goods and services. So and easy way to determine this is whether the place is open to the public and selling or buying something. Such places as health clubs, hotels and motels and movie theaters, gas stations are other places in addition to others mentioned above but use the test. Is the place open for business to make money buying and selling from and with the public? If so then these code sections all apply. You can go to these sections and the ones before and after and determine of the methods of discrimination but looking at the codes and the cases for yourself. I have set forth a few examples for you earlier in this article.

I will just briefly touch on California Civil Code Section 54.2 which allows for seeing eye dogs to be allowed in places where food is served and other places where someone might be offended by the presence of an animal. These animal are known as service animals or dogs and they assist disabled people who can not see and in some cases even hear. If someone is not allowed in with their service animal then that would be a violation.

If you are disabled then I would highly recommend that you become familiar with these code sections and the ones preceeding them and following them. The purpose of these laws is to both provide for damages to people who have been discriminated against and also to force business owners into compliance. So the more people that complain and sue for violations the more likely it will be that the business owners will decide to comply. It should be noted that business owners do not have to incur unreasonable or undue financial burdens to make modifications to their businesses. They do not have to make fundamental alterations that alters the essential nature of the goods or services provided. These issues would not be addressed in small claims court unless they were brought up as a defense but they are more applicable for Federal Law Violations.

I hope this article is of some help and please note that before one even files their suit that you may submit a demand letter for your damages and if not complied with then you can file your law suit. We prepare such letters and have had success in many cases.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6307874

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