The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an important law enacted in 1990 to safeguard people with disabilities from discrimination in various areas of public life, including work, school, state and local governments, and other places of public use, such as hospitals, clinics, and medical practices. Despite its well-intentioned, there has been an alarming increase in the number of lawsuits brought under the ADA in recent years. Often these lawsuits are filed against medical professionals, who are especially vulnerable since they settle out of court so often.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers target medical professionals for a variety of reasons. It is often difficult for medical professionals to comply with ADA laws because they are unaware of them. Lack of subject matter expertise or financial constraints can make it nearly impossible to fix or monitor digital assets, such as websites. It is common for plaintiffs’ lawyers and plaintiffs to search various search engines and directories to see if medical websites are not compliant with the ADA. By the time medical professionals are notified of their violation, it is often too late, and they aren’t given an opportunity to understand and address the claim.

Furthermore, the ADA statute provides for attorneys’ fees, creating a monetary incentive for plaintiffs’ lawyers to quickly file claims instead of notifying medical professionals that they are not in compliance with the ADA. This results in law firms taking advantage of medical professionals’ lack of time or resources to take a lawsuit through litigation and forcing them to settle the case.

Moreover, digital accessibility laws leave much uncertainty and confusion for medical professionals, and plaintiff’s lawyers are taking advantage of this situation. In 2020, more than 2,500 lawsuits were filed alleging that websites or mobile apps weren’t accessible to blind users. Many plaintiff’s firms file hundreds of cookie-cutter website compliance lawsuits. Website and mobile app accessibility lawsuits have made up roughly a fifth of all ADA filings in federal courts since 2018.

As medical professionals, we must emphasize the importance of implementing and taking steps to become ADA compliant. Some states are taking notice and imposing additional evidentiary requirements on plaintiffs’ firms in ADA lawsuits. States and the federal government are not working fast enough to protect medical professionals and prevent the abuse of the ADA statute.