The Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010. Certain of these amendments became effective as of March 15, 2011, including revisions to the provisions of the ADA governing service animals. Rules…
ADA Defense & Compliance Lawyer: ADA reservation system requirements The US Department of Justice has revised the regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for the first time in nearly 20 years. While the revisions to the ADA Regulations include broad changes in many areas, today’s blog focuses on…
Jim Butler, Chair of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group reports that many investors view our current economic downtime as the perfect opportunity to purchase distressed hotel and motel assets at substantial discounts. Before any of these investors complete a purchase transaction, however, they should add one more item to their due…
Does the ADA now require all hotels to provide personal hearing or closed caption devices for deaf and hard of hearing guests? In November 2010, a disability rights group launched class action litigation against Cinemark’s theaters in California on behalf of “The Association of Late Deafened Adults.” In its complaint,…
On November 9, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (DOJ) and Hilton Worldwide, Inc. (Hilton) announced that they entered into a 45-page “comprehensive precedent-setting agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) that will make state-of-the-art accessibility changes to approximately 900 hotels nationwide.” More than…
CASp may not be a “silver bullet” but CASp compliance is still a smart move California’s 2009 Construction-Related Accessibility Standards Compliance Act (“the Act”) was designed to curb abusive ADA litigation by creating the Certified Access Specialist program (CASp). CASp enables business owners to follow procedures to “certify” that their…
On July 23, 2010, the U.S. Attorney General signed into law important revisions to the Department of Justice’s Regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new regulations also include substantial and far reaching revisions to the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), which are now known as the…
ADA enforcement “sweeps” hit the West Coast — Exactly what does this mean to the lodging industry? If I am the owner or manager of a hotel and get an envelope from the DOJ with one of its ADA Compliance Review questionnaires, what should I do? First, take it very…
Mass-produced ADA litigation: Plaintiff and his lawyer sanctioned The end to sue-and-settle “drive bys”? A couple of weeks ago, a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge granted a business owner’s motion for sanctions under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 128.7 against a plaintiff who has filed many ADA…
As many hotel owners know, both Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California law mandates that all public accommodations–including virtually all hotels and inns–remove architectural and communication barriers, modify their policies and procedures, and provide other auxiliary aides and accessible services. But these requirements can be…