This blind athlete has filed ADA 164 lawsuits

Nov. 10--Legally blind and confined to a wheelchair, Juan Carlos Gil has traveled the world competing in marathons in which he has earned plaudits for his athletic prowess and his determination to overcome his disabilities.

But for government officials and some business owners in Palm Beach County, the 36-year-old Miami wheelchair athlete isn't known for his inspirational feats but, rather, for his penchant for litigation.

Gil has filed 164 lawsuits in South Florida, accusing government agencies, restaurants and stores of violating the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act by refusing to take steps to assure the blind can navigate their websites.

"I'm fighting for equality," said Gil, who was born with cerebral palsy. "We live in the United States where we beat our chests and say we're the No. 1 place to be. But there are holes in it. It's very disconcerting that it's now 2018 and websites aren't accessible to the visually impaired. It dismisses a whole population."

Gil is far from alone in his passion.

A small cadre of blind and deaf men and women, often labeled "professional plaintiffs" or "serial filers" by their critics, have sued the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, the county clerk, the county commission, the school board and Boca Raton in recent months, claiming government-run websites aren't accessible to the disabled.

With the help of Wellington lawyer Alberto Leal, one blind Boynton Beach woman has filed 156 lawsuits this year against various businesses including GameStop, PetSmart, Old Navy and Michael Kors.

The blind want websites equipped with software that allows them to have the content read to them. The deaf, meanwhile, want any videos posted to include closed captioning.

Targeting inaccessible web sites is the latest twist for those seeking to enforce the terms of the federal act that was passed in 1990 -- long before the internet ruled our daily lives. In the 28 years since the law was passed, disabled activists have filed tens of thousands of suits nationwide, claiming stores and government buildings lacked ramps, grip bars in bathrooms or doorways wide enough for wheelchairs.

The new focus on websites has pushed the number of ADA lawsuits to record levels both in Florida and across the nation, experts say.

"It's creating such a flood of litigation," said Tallahassee attorney Nicole Sieb Smith, who represents businesses who have been hit with ADA lawsuits. To challenge physical barriers, disabled people must visit a business or government office to record problems that thwart the disabled.

"Now, you can sit in your living room in your bunny shoes and surf the web and you have your lawsuit," she said. "You don't even have to go to the location."

While it's a new area of the law, Smith said she advises most of her clients to make the upgrades, settle the lawsuits and move on.

"Most businesses realize it's more expensive to fight them. They'd rather put the funds into fixing the website," said Smith, whose Palm Beach County clients have included Delray Beach-based Lindburgers Restaurant and Chedder's Casual Café in Wellington.

Records show some Palm Beach County government agencies have adopted a similar approach. Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller Sharon Bock in September settled a lawsuit with Gil and his attorney Scott Dinin for $15,000.

The county commission also spent $15,000 in June to settle a lawsuit with Edddie Sierra, a deaf Miami man who has filed 30 ADA lawsuits, demanding that videos on government websites include closed-captioning. Hit with a similar lawsuit, Boca Raton in August paid Sierra and his attorney J. Courtney Cunningham$11,000. The School Board in June settled a lawsuit with Sierra for $15,000.

In each case, government agencies didn't admit any wrongdoing. Hampton Peterson, general counsel for the clerk's office, said the agency is in the process of updating its website and planned to make sure financial documents Gil sought could be accessed by the blind.

"We do everything we can do in this office to make sure whatever we do is accessible to people if they have a disability," Peterson said. "We go out of our way to make sure our services are accessible."

But not all have settled the suits.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is fighting a suit filed by blind Miami resident, Andres Gomez, who claims the agency is violating the ADA because documents on its website aren't accessible to people like him. Over the years, Gomez has filed 424 ADA lawsuits.

In addition to mentioning Gomez's impressive litigation history, attorneys representing Bradshaw say Gomez has no reason to access the sheriff's website.

"Plaintiff does not reside in Palm Beach County and, in fact, resides two counties away -- in Miami-Dade County," wrote Coral Gables attorney Suhaill Morales, who is representing Bradshaw. "Therefore, plaintiff is not eligible to receive police services from PBSO.

"Even assuming plaintiff were in Palm Beach County and needed police services, the web site would not be the mechanism to obtain those services," Morales continued. "Rather plaintiff would have to call 9-1-1."

Gomez countered that he is considering moving to the county and wants to know whether it is safe to do so. Not allowing him to access the information, is demeaning, he said.

"This exclusion resulted in me suffering from feelings of segregation, rejection, and isolation," he wrote in an affidavit filed with the court. "I am unable to avoid the conclusion that I am without social value and considered a nuisance by those who discriminate against me (and other vision impaired people)."

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks has not ruled on Bradshaw's request to dismiss Gomez's lawsuit.

In another case, county commissioners are trying a different tact. They are waiting to see the outcome of the appeal of a successful lawsuit Gil filed against Winn-Dixie.

Gil's lawsuit against the supermarket chain paved the way for much of the current litigation, said Smith, the Tallahassee attorney. U.S. District Judge Robert Scola, Jr., in 2017 ruled that Winn-Dixie had to make its website accessible to the blind and ordered the supermarket chain to pay nearly $109,000 to cover Gil's attorneys' fees and court costs.

In his ruling, Scola noted that Winn-Dixie spent $9 million on its website which pales in comparison to the $37,000 to $250,000 dueling experts said it would cost to make the site accessible to the blind. However, he insisted, money isn't the issue.

"The factual findings demonstrate that Winn-Dixie's website is inaccessible to visually impaired individuals," he wrote. "Therefore, Winn-Dixie has violated the ADA because the inaccessibility of its website has denied Gil the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations that Winn-Dixie offers its sighted customers."

While Scola stayed his ruling while Winn-Dixie appealed it to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Smith said the ruling marked the first time a case went to trial and a federal judge found that the ADA extends to websites. Now, she said, the focus is on the Atlanta-based appeals court to see if it agrees.

Since Scola's ruling, the number of lawsuits filed have exploded. In the first six months of this year, more website lawsuits were filed nationwide than in all of 2017 , said Seyfarth Shaw, a Chicago-based law firm that tracks ADA lawsuits. Florida and New York lead the nation in the number of website lawsuits filed, it said.

While some business owners are frustrated when they are hit with a lawsuit over their websites, Smith said she tells them accessibility is good for their bottom lines. "I counsel my clients that it is good business to reach out to all potential customers," she said. "If a website is accessible, it is a competitive edge."

Cunningham, who has represented Sierra and Gil in dozens of lawsuits, said 15 percent of Florida's population is deaf or hard of hearing. "If you've got 15 percent of the population that can't use your website, wouldn't it make sense to make your website accessible?" he asked.

Still, Smith worries some may just decide the expense -- that can vary dramatically depending on the size of the website -- isn't worth it. In their zeal to make the internet accessible, lawsuits filed by disabled activists may have the opposite effect.

The Flagler Beach City Commission last month decided to stop live streaming its meetings after Sierra wrote the mayor, asking that closed-captioning be added, according to flaglerlive.com.

Cunningham scoffed at such an approach. "As citizens, as Americans, certainly as Floridians, we should all have access to government records," he said.

Noting that it's been nearly 30 years since the ADA was passed, Cunningham said he can't believe the disabled are still being forced to file lawsuits to be able to live like their able-bodied counterparts. "This is a civil rights statute," he said. "People with disabilities should be fully integrated into our society."

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