The LA Times published a story this week about a handful of people who've filed thousands of ADA lawsuits against local businesses in southern California over the past decade. The seven plaintiffs mention in the story filed 1,000 cases last year alone.
Anthony Bouyer has been on a suing spree around the San Fernando Valley.
On Sept. 24, the 55-year-old internet marketer confronted a counter at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot that was difficult to reach over in his wheelchair. He sued the business for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. In L.A. County, it was at least his 231st case of the year.
At the convenience store next door, he found a produce scale out of arm’s length. He sued them too.
Over the past decade, the same people have filed 9,000 lawsuits. The Times reports there is a state law in California which allows for payouts for ADA violations, which helps explain this trend. All seven of the plaintiffs mentioned in the story have been represented by the same law firm.
Manning Law, based in Orange County, has become the go-to for serial ADA plaintiffs, including Bouyer...
The firm’s owner, Joseph Manning, recently had his license suspended by the State Bar for allegedly making false statements about billable hours involving dozens of ADA lawsuits. The firm denied all wrongdoing and said its billing practice has been “modified” to the bar’s satisfaction.
Businesses who haven been targeted by this firm often decide to settle the claims as a nuisance. For instance, Zuheir Nakkoud who manages a liquor store in Sylmar, was sued after Anthony Bouyer showed up an bought a bottle of water at his shop. The letter he received asked for $14,000, apparently over how accessible his aisles were to people in wheelchairs. Nakkoud said he'd seen people in wheelchairs from a nearby dialysis center navigate his aisles without a problem but he ultimately decided to pay the $14,000 because fighting it in court would cost him even more money. That particular lawsuit was just one of three that Bouyer filed that day.
Another law firm called Potter Handy, was sued in 2022 by DAs for Los Angeles and San Francisco for "a shakedown scheme to extract coerced settlements from small business owners in California." But that case was eventually dismissed.
Last year a Republican state senator put forward a bipartisan bill aimed at stopping this practice, or at least slowing it down, by giving businesses time to correct minor violations before they can be hit with penalties. But Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José) opposes the bill and it never got a hearing in the Assembly.
With few other options, some businesses decide to fight in court. When that happens, they often wind up being represented by Ara Sahelian, "a defense attorney who estimates he has litigated more than 100 cases against Manning Law." Sahellan faced off with one of these plaintiffs earlier this month.
At his home office, Sahelian, 69, who contracted polio at 6 months old and was left unable to walk, keeps thick black binders devoted to each serial plaintiff. Bouyer gets three. So does Perla Mageno, a Manning Law plaintiff who has sued hundreds of businesses under the ADA over websites she claims don’t work with her screen-reading software...
On April 7, Sahelian faced off in a Pasadena courthouse against Mageno for the fourth time as she testified to the judge she was frustrated that a picture on the website of a Tustin burger shop had not told her “this is an amazing burger” and “this is a graphic of a cheeseburger that has lettuce, tomato sauce coming out of the side.”
The Times suggests this particular type of lawsuit may fade away now that AI software can fairly easily read and describe graphics on web pages. But the lawsuits involving physical changes to businesses are profitable so they probably won't be going away until state lawmakers find a way to curb them.
