In a conversation with Alisa Nelson on Show Me Today, NFIB State Director Brad Jones discussed why small business owners need protection from predatory trial attorneys, claiming that their websites are not ADA-compliant.

CLICK HERE for the full conversation. Excerpts are below.

Describing how small business owners have become a target of ADA-related lawsuit abuse, Jones said:

“We’ve got some enterprising trial lawyers out there that are looking for websites that they think do not fall under ADA compliance. Which is an interesting thing, because there is no ADA compliance [guidelines] that is directly related to websites. […] They are not very specific about what it is that makes a website compliant.”

He continued, saying:

“We had a trial lawyer in Kansas City who sent out 70 settlement letters. And basically, they said, you either fix your website, or we will sue you. They have one blind plaintiff for all of these settlement letters. Interestingly enough, they said, along with it, the letter, they said, and by the way, we’ll settle this for you. for what’s going anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000, you send us, and we will settle this case, and we will not have to take it to court. […] They are asking for just the right amount of money that, from a business standpoint, it’s probably in your best interest to just pay them off. And it’s a shakedown. It is nothing more than a shakedown.”

NFIB is championing SB 907, which aims to stop trial attorneys’ attempts to force a settlement without giving the business an opportunity to resolve the issue.