Rodrigo Nogueira was met with a surprise in April 2025 when lawyers contacted him out of the blue.
asserted
lawyers → meet → blue
They asked whether he needed legal assistance over a summons his restaurant received for violating Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
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restaurant → ask → Act
It was the first he had ever heard of it.
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he → hear → it
The lawsuit listed 35 violations against No More Cafe, his restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.
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lawsuit → list → Village
One violation alleged a table outside the restaurant was not ADA compliant, an accusation that puzzled Nogueira: the cafe had no outdoor tables.
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cafe → allege → tables
Other alleged violations were about infractions inside the restaurant, yet the plaintiff said he was unable to enter the restaurant.
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he → allege → restaurant
When Nogueira researched the lawsuit, he discovered that the plaintiff who sued him and the plaintiff’s lawyer had filed complaints against dozens of small businesses.
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who → research → businesses
The attorney who filed the lawsuit against him alone had filed more than 100 ADA lawsuits over the past nine years against storefront businesses.
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who → file → businesses
Nogueira, sitting at a table in his cafe, said: “The [plaintiff] that’s suing me – he’s got 67 cases.”
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he → sit → cases
Before possibly hiring a lawyer, Nogueira filed a motion himself to dismiss the case.
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Nogueira → hire → case
But the judge said a company cannot represent itself in court.
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company → say → court
For small businesses, spending thousands of dollars in lawyers fees to just file a motion can be prohibitively costly.
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spending → spend → motion
Frustrated with the process, Nogueira sought to speak with other small business owners.
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Nogueira → seek → owners
He went through public court records and found nearby businesses that were also being sued for ADA noncompliance.
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that → go → noncompliance
“Every business owner I spoke to had opened within the last year or two.
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I → speak → year
Every one of them was an immigrant,” Nogueira, who is from Brazil, wrote in a post on his website about the lawsuit.
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who → write → lawsuit
“None of us had any idea how to navigate the federal court system.
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None → have → system
Most were already several thousand dollars into legal fees by the time we talked.
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we → talk → time
Several of them did not realize they had been sued until the deadline to respond had already passed.”
Other small business owners the Guardian spoke to, who largely declined to speak on the record, said they also feel unfairly targeted by serial ADA litigants.
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they → realize → litigants
This barrage of ADA litigation filed against storefront businesses has put the small business community at loggerheads with ADA plaintiffs and their lawyers.
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barrage → file → plaintiffs
The ADA became federal law in 1990, and Title III was created to ensure that people with disabilities do not face “barriers to entry” and have access to spaces such as stores, restaurants, bars and cafes.
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people → become → stores
However, even with the law in place, many people with disabilities and their advocates have long been frustrated by the lack of ADA compliance in restaurants, cafes and shops, which might not have usable entryways, bathrooms or tables.
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which → frustrate → entryways
While the Department of Justice might take up corporate ADA noncompliance cases, there is no local regulation, and private litigation is often the only means that brings smaller businesses into compliance.
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that → take → compliance
Businesses are given some leeway in the ADA’s standards for accessible design, which can be confusing for business owners.
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which → give → owners
Modifications should be made when they are “readily achievable” or “easy to do without much difficulty or expense”, according to the standards, and “a business with more resources is expected to remove more barriers than a business with fewer resources”.
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business → make → resources
“The issue is around the ability for small business owners to make these changes,” said Jessica Walker, president and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, who testified last year in front of the New York city council on the impact that these serial ADA lawsuits can have on small business owners.
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lawsuits → make → owners
Many storefront businesses feel they could successfully fight alleged violations on the grounds that they are unable to fix them or that they are already in full compliance.
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they → feel → compliance
But the cost of going to court and paying thousands of dollars in legal fees often makes fighting the violations, regardless of whether they are valid, insurmountable.
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they → go → violations
When a business is served with an ADA lawsuit, there are only two options for business owners: fix the violations that are “readily achievable” and settle out of court, which could cost anywhere from $13,000 to $20,000 in legal fees (in Nogueira’s case, the plaintiff’s settlement offer was $8,000, which doesn’t include his own lawyer fees); or go to court, which could cost between $20,000 to $50,000 or or more in legal fees.
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which → serve → fees
To business owners, being forced to hire a lawyer can feel unfair.
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forced → force → lawyer
When it comes to enforcement of other laws, such as health, fire safety, or liquor regulations, for example, hiring legal services is rarely necessary.
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hiring → come → services
Businesses work directly with the city to become compliant.
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Businesses → work → city
Small business advocates say that the ADA’s enforcement system allows for lawyers who represent serial litigants to make thousands off of small businesses.
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who → say → businesses
Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York (LRANY), a non-profit that advocates for legal reform in New York state, said the lawyers do not seem to care if the lawsuit’s listed violations are even valid.
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violations → advocate → state
“It is the definition of throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks,” said Stebbins, adding that the lawyers and plaintiffs seem unconcerned whether the lawsuits would actually lead to substantial changes.
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lawsuits → throw → changes
Rather, they seem to be coercing small businesses to pay out a settlement.
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they → seem → settlement
This practice has frustrated business owners, who feel like the law is “being abused by bad actors right now”, Stebbins said.
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Stebbins → frustrate → actors
But disability advocates say the lawsuits are necessary to enforce a civil rights law and make businesses more ADA compliant.
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businesses → say → law
“I get that store owners don’t like to be sued, but the vast majority of cases that are filed – whether they are filed by individuals filing their first case or individuals who are filing 20 cases a month, there’s actual violations there,” said Michelle Uzeta, executive director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.
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Uzeta → get → Fund
There is no reason why accessibility issues have not been dealt with by now.”
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issues → be → ?
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
