San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys on Monday ordered a judge to stop the practice and refund millions of dollars paid by businesses, accusing a law firm of robbing small businesses in California of unfounded disability-rights lawsuits. Cases.
For years, San Diego’s Potter Handy Company has been “bombing California’s small businesses with illegal, boiler cases,” District Attorney Chesa Powdin and his Los Angeles County Rep. George Gascon told the San Francisco High Court.
They said the company was suing on behalf of a few disabled customers who, in most cases, did not go to businesses and generally demanded fabricated violations. For example, two restaurants in Chinatown, San Francisco, were accused of serving food at outdoor tables that could not accommodate wheelchairs – only serving food that both men could carry due to infection.
One of those restaurants, Hon’s Wun-Tun House on Kearny Street, is owned by immigrant Amanda Yan, who worked as an employee for 11 years and earned enough money in 2018 to buy the business. It takes two to three months of income to pay the settlement.
Danny Hu, exactly, on April 7, 2022, sent an order of beef brisket noodles to Amanda Yan, the owner of the Hans Won-Dun House in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco.
Stephen Lam / The ChronicleBusinesses settle cases of $ 10,000 or more because attorneys ‘attorneys’ fees and costs typically cost between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000 to defend them, district attorneys said. The company shifted its focus from Southern California through “serial files” to the Gulf last year, especially targeting small businesses run by expatriates who are fluent in English.
GoApple, based in Chinatown, repairs and sells cell phones, and was charged last year with a countertop and front door collapse that left no room for wheelchairs. Business owner Fanley Sen said Monday that the complaints were unfounded, but that the building owner insisted on a lawsuit for $ 11,000, splitting them equally because it would cost more to load a security.
“It’s unfair, but I can do nothing about it,” he said. “I do not want to leave and lose my job. I have a child, a family to support.
Fanly Chen, owner of the GoApple center, establishes a folding platform on July 27, 2021, at the counter booth of his phone repair shop in the Chinatown area of San Francisco. Disabled Americans Act.
Stephen Lam / The Chronicle“We hold those responsible for exploiting vulnerable business owners, hurting immigrant communities and violating the intentions of laws designed to improve access,” Boudin said in a statement.
His predecessor, Gascon, who was San Francisco’s attorney general, said, “When disability laws are misused to target small businesses for financial gain, it not only hurts business owners, but also harms protected people.”
In response, Potter Handy’s attorney, Dennis Price, said the case was a politically motivated attempt to defend both lawyers against voter recall (Putin faces a recall on June 7; the campaign to recall Cascon is ongoing, but has not yet been able to qualify for a future vote). Pryce said the company’s lawsuit “makes California more compliant with disability law.”
“There is no dispute that businesses subject to our claims have violated the law,” Price said. “Instead, fingers are pointed to care for our customers, the victims.”
Thousands of cases are the result of federal and state laws. The Disability Act of 1990, enacted to protect the disabled from access to employment, education, transportation and any other facilities open to the public, did not appoint a federal agency to implement that work, and disabled Americans and their lawyers.
ADA does not impose financial penalties for violations. But California’s Unruh civil rights law provides for a minimum of $ 4,000 in damages for civil rights violations, and disabled Californians can add Unruh legal claims to their federal lawsuit, usually with an attorney fee of $ 10,000 or more.
One of Potter Handy’s clients, Brian Whitaker, has filed approximately 1,700 lawsuits, while another, Orlando Garcia, has filed more than 800 lawsuits, according to district attorneys’ lawsuits. Both live in Los Angeles County, but have filed hundreds of lawsuits in the Gulf region.
While their lawsuits state that each person went to the store personally and encountered obstacles, Boudin and Gascón said the evidence indicates that they routinely walked or drove and sent an assistant to visit the business or take a photo.
The lawsuit against the law firm and 15 of its lawyers alleges violations of California’s unfair competition law, which carries a $ 2,500 fine. Potter Handy is seeking a refund of court orders preventing unfounded disability cases and all settlements and attorneys’ fees levied from businesses over the past four years.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: BobEgelko