{"id":293109,"date":"2026-04-30T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293109\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:09:11","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-california-must-enact-safeguards-against-disability-lawsuit-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293109\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Editor: California must enact safeguards against disability lawsuit abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>To the editor: California\u2019s disability access laws serve an important purpose, but this Los Angeles Times story highlights a system that is clearly out of balance (<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-04-27\/los-angeles-restaurants-disability-lawsuits\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cOne man has filed 1,800 disability lawsuits against SoCal shops. Store owners are fed up,\u201d<\/a> April 27).<\/p>\n<p>A handful of serial plaintiffs filing hundreds \u2014 even thousands \u2014 of lawsuits over minor technical violations is not advancing accessibility; it\u2019s exploiting it. Small business owners, many operating on thin margins, are being forced into quick settlements not because they are unwilling to comply, but because the legal costs of fighting back are too high.<\/p>\n<p>There is a better path forward. Policies like \u201cnotice and cure\u201d \u2014 such as <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org\/bills\/ca_202520260sb84\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Senate Bill 84<\/a> sponsored by Sen. Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) \u2014 would give business owners the opportunity to fix legitimate issues quickly, improving access without fueling lawsuit abuse.<\/p>\n<p>California can and should protect the rights of individuals with disabilities while also ensuring fairness for small businesses. Right now, the system is failing to do both.<\/p>\n<p>Victor Gomez, Hollister<br \/>This writer is the executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a grassroots group fighting lawsuit abuse in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: California\u2019s disability access laws serve an important purpose, but this Los Angeles Times story highlights&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,124852,2072,11772,34709,4915,20217,1838,63,124854,62776,124853,43933,11936,3293],"class_list":["post-293109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-disability-lawsuit-abuse","tag-editor","tag-executive-director","tag-hollister","tag-hundred","tag-individual","tag-letter","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-minor-technical-violation","tag-safeguard","tag-serial-plaintiff","tag-small-business-owner","tag-system","tag-thousand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}