The lawsuit mill in California never stops turning, whether it’s propelled by shakedowns from miniscule, easily correctible violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or by halts to badly needed housing construction from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Now, there’s a new tool for lawyers specializing in pay-up-to-make-it-go-away litigation to use to shake down small business owners—supposed violations of the internet, using a law that was established before the internet came along.

“Companies with websites accessed by California consumers are increasingly facing lawsuits and arbitration demands under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), which imposes potential statutory damages of $5,000 per violation,” reports the American Bar Association. “Plaintiffs’ attorneys are leveraging the decades-old CIPA to circumvent the limitations of newer privacy laws, alleging that using website tracking technologies without obtaining user consent infringes on privacy rights.”

A new coalition NFIB is now part of, ReformCIPA, is supporting Senate Bill 690, a bipartisan measure “to curb this economic and community burden by ensuring modern digital practices are governed by modern privacy laws, rather than a statute written decades before the internet existed,” according to a ReformCIPA news release.

“Originally designed in the 1960s to prevent wiretapping, the law is now being exploited by trial lawyers to target organizations over routine website tools, such as chat features and analytics … Organizations, including non-profits are flooded with ‘pay up or get sued’ demand letters, and because fighting these claims in court is often more expensive than settling, many are pressured into paying massive, unjust settlements. These legal shakedowns ultimately function as a hidden tax on consumers.

“With everyday Californians already struggling under the weight of rising housing, energy, food, and healthcare costs, forcing small businesses to spend thousands on legal defense guarantees those financial burdens are passed directly to families that can’t afford these prices.”

Using environmental, disability, and, now, privacy laws to shakedown people who never consciously violated the spirit of any law is a blight on American jurisprudence and needs to be stopped.

Lawsuit abuse is particularly hard on small business owners who often lack the ability to pay up to make the threat of being hauled into court go away. The law firm of Novian & Novian says, “On average, it costs employers around $75,000 to work with an employment lawyer to settle a claim before it reaches trial. However, if the case progresses to court, the expenses can skyrocket, with pre-trial defense costs easily exceeding $125,000.”

See how much easier it is to pay $5,000 to make it all disappear? What an insidious and malignant way to make money.

Want to be part of this campaign? Click here to join the coalition.