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<\/a><\/p>\nWhile some believe the lawsuits help bring change for the blind, others believe most of these lawsuits are more about making money, than making a difference.<\/p>\n
At Leaf & Blossom, Co., the small flower shop Ajeeta Khanna and her mom Kittty run, the two said the lawsuit was a shock. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just literally five people. We\u2019re not like fifty employees in, you know, a huge building or anything,\u201d Ajeeta Khanna told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.<\/p>\n
A third-party runs most of their website, and they believed it complied with ADA standards.<\/p>\n
Khanna said, \u201cI\u2019m just sitting there thinking, \u2018What on earth? Is this a scam?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
They paid out more than $7,000 in legal fees and settlement payments after their attorney told them it was cheaper to settle than to fight the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Action 9 and teams from the other Cox Media Group stations combed through tens of thousands of lawsuits across the country. The teams found more than 15,000 cases in the past 4-years claiming visually impaired people had trouble accessing a company\u2019s website. In 2025 alone, they tracked nearly 4,000 cases and 90% were filed by just 16 law firms.<\/p>\n
Those firms include Roderick V. Hannah Esq. from south Florida who often works with The Law Office of Pelayo Duran. One of their clients is Victor Ariza, a blind man who has sued hundreds of businesses including Walt Disney Parks, SeaWorld and the Leaf & Blossom, Co. flower shop in Orlando.<\/p>\n
Action 9 caught up with Victor Ariza at his Miami apartment.<\/p>\n
Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal asked, \u201cDo you think that the lawsuits have helped the blind?\u201d<\/p>\n
Answering in Spanish, Ariza said, \u201c100%. A lot, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an advocate, he insists they mostly target large established businesses and believes the lawsuits have made a difference in bringing website accessibility for the visually impaired, but he admitted he couldn\u2019t recall using Leaf & Blossom\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see, because as there are so many, there are so many (cases) that I don\u2019t remember,\u201d Ariza said.<\/p>\n
Action 9 called, emailed, and stopped by law offices for Pelayo Duran and Roderick Hannah, but so far neither attorney has commented on the cases. But one plaintiff attorney our teams spoke with doesn\u2019t believe in the high-volume strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not an advocate of that approach, and in fact, I think it can actually be a disservice to the disabled community,\u201d said attorney Bruce Carlson.<\/p>\n
Carlson began filing website accessibility cases more than a decade ago. He said litigation can force change, but should be strategic with legitimate claims.<\/p>\n
Small business owner Nayan Padrai was offended when he got sued even after working to make his website accessible.<\/p>\n
Padrai said, \u201cI am morally aghast by what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since his business was sued, he\u2019s made it his life\u2019s mission to expose what he calls serial filers. He\u2019s even producing a documentary to try to show what he believes, that most of the suits are aimed at quick settlements to make money for attorneys.<\/p>\n
Padrai and Ajeeta Khanna now want lawmakers to get involved to pass federal legislation that clarifies the website requirements and gives businesses a warning and grace period to correct any problems before a lawsuit can be filed.<\/p>\n
Ajeeta Khanna said, \u201cThat\u2019s unfair to us. We\u2019re hard working. Why should we ding our bottom line? Why should be cut into our expenses for something so frivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics of the lawsuits contend they not only hurts businesses, but in the end all consumers pay for it if the businesses have to raise prices. Despite the thousands of lawsuits, so far, Action 9 and the other Cox Media Group stations haven\u2019t found a single case that has gone to trial. They all get settled or dismissed.<\/p>\n
MORE WFTV ACTION 9 STORIES<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 \u201cIt said that we were indeed being sued five days before Christmas,\u201d said Ajeeta Khanna.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[18054,14189,37671,79096,79106,79093,6275,79104,2652,1060,1191,6859,1061,21539,44709,7175,79095,79101,634,123,79105,115,139,141,140,79094,79102,79098,79103,79097,2043,7174,79099,1045,79100],"class_list":{"0":"post-166301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-18054","9":"tag-action","10":"tag-ada","11":"tag-aita","12":"tag-ajita_khanna","13":"tag-americans_with_disabilities_act","14":"tag-attorney","15":"tag-bruce_carlson","16":"tag-central_florida","17":"tag-channel_9","18":"tag-christmas","19":"tag-disney","20":"tag-eyewitness","21":"tag-iran","22":"tag-jeff","23":"tag-jeff_deal","24":"tag-kitty_kana","25":"tag-leaf_and_blossom","26":"tag-local","27":"tag-miami","28":"tag-nain_pedrai","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-orlando","31":"tag-orlando-headlines","32":"tag-orlando-news","33":"tag-orlando_flower_shop","34":"tag-paleo_duran","35":"tag-paleo","36":"tag-roderick_hanna","37":"tag-roderick_v-_hannah_esquire","38":"tag-seaworld","39":"tag-south_florida","40":"tag-victor_ariza","41":"tag-video","42":"tag-walt_disney_parks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}