Devils Pushing Wheels

I live in LA and none of this surprises me. There’s also here a huge Russian Mob community, committing insurance fraud all day, that gives us our nice insurance premiums. Nice artwork, as usual Pat. You’re an incredibly talented artist. God bless you that you do it for the cause of saving America.

SFWeekly did a story on this, one particular lawyer and client have filed hundreds of lawsuits. “Rolling for Dollars” might have been the title.

The other one is the handicapped parking placards – all street parking is occupied by these things. People get the sniffles and get a plackard.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

From Henry VI

Why is no notice given? That’s just an invitation to frivilous lawsuits. We need some Tort Reform.

Thank you.

Thank you for alerting me to this particular scam — I will follow through and look for small business who might run afoul of the crooked cons.

One thing that I’ve noticed about the handicapped parking — is that most of the time the spots are empty (in WA state there are many near the entrances to large stores). That doesn’t bother me — but what I have noticed is the non-handicapped (with a handicapped tag on their car) use these reserved spaces.

In Florida — I watched a woman drive up and park in a handicapped space (her’s was the only vehicle in a dozen reserved spaces). She put the handicapped tag on her rear view mirror and then jumped out of her SUV and rushed into the store — wearing the highest heels I’ve seen in a long time.

Actually I’ve seen more abuses then actual handicapped using the spaces — cars with special permits being used as a way to take reserved parking.

It doesn’t surprise me that this sort of scam is happening in California. There is a regular cottage industry of phony accidents — etc. to the point that these scams have become plots in mystery novels.

Yes, this is an issue that needs further review. Courts should not allow these fraud-ass lawsuits, and it sure seems like a lot of people that aren’t handicapped have placards, I agree with Catfish. My Dad was given one by his Dr for no good reason I can think of–the man is capable of walking miles a day. Then his wife got hold of it & kept it when they split up!

Now my son also has a blue permanent handi placard as he has Musc Dystrophy and another congenital defect besides. He has several Drs & surgeons that all agree he needs it. He will always be entitled to the placard, although we only use it when necessary, & I have never, ever used it for myself. People parking in handicap slots w/o who aren’t handicapped or have a handicapped person in their car annoy the hell out me. My kid has had special therapy all his life & surgery last year, and for the time being he is walking almost normally. He has never ridden a bike or skateboard, but he is starting to play golf and basketball, and is using his wheelchair less and less.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to ramble on, just wanted to add in that even those of us that do deal with the handicap situation find these lawsuits outrageous & think there should be better regulating as far as who gets them.

Here in Houston an advocate for ADA compliance went after a historical ballroom in the Third Ward. This place was closed for years and finally began to reopen as part of the work of an organization that recognizes the history of this black community.

This venue was home to some of Houston’s legendary jazz musicians and singers and had many generations pass through its doors from 1939 until it closed in the early 1970s.

After Project Row House began to rebuild it, a local advocate for ADA started camping outside it to protest that it didn’t have a wheelchair elevator. He then accused the organization of not caring about the fact that it wasn’t ADA compliant and that they didn’t care about the disabled members of its community. He didn’t provide evidence of this lack of caring, just kept using it on his radio show to hound them for almost a year.

Every week his show went after this historical ballroom that is now more museum than anything else.

The questions posed to him were met with guilt tripping and dismissal. I remember someone called in and asked why he didn’t focus on venues that were more important and lacked ADA compliance and his answer was pretty much the same, “because these people of all should know better”.

He had picked it out because from his view these were people who were seen as leftist and thus one of his own. He wanted to host a Sierra Club meeting in this building and then turned it into a crusade.

I think he did more to discredit himself and did damage to the cause of supporting the ADA by being absolute in his determination that this venue, with almost no budget, would have to destroy one of the two side walls to install an elevator.

Local TSU students were asked to come up with engineering to add an elevator to the side, but without funding this would have been impossible, and would likely have altered the venue so much that it would cease to retain its original qualities.

Houston is notorious for not respecting its historical buildings and has no system for establishing the buildings as historical landmarks.

Why couldn’t he have taken to the airwaves to raise the money instead of hounding them, threatening them, and going after them with such a focus that you’d think they were pissing on the disabled?

Sometimes being right isn’t as important as having priorities. Maybe in time we’ll have enough progress to suit zealots like him, but as of yet, the building is unchanged.

http://projectrowhouses.org/eldorado-ballroom/

Thanks for highlighting an important issue, Pat. Many of those litigants and their lawyers are urban terrorists against businesses, disguising their extortionist tactics as doing good for the disabled, but are motivated by greed as they pocket big bucks. Otherwise, they would give businesses notice that they have 60 or so days to comply or they may be sued.

Action Item, Pat, good cartoon for the issue.
Have the ADA law amended to give 30 days notice to comply of any known violation. That is what should take place. Write your Congressmember.

I’d like to know what your friend was charged with, what were the stated violations or claims in the lawsuit? How much will it cost to cure the violations prior to the trial?

I’d file an countersuit, naming the ADA as a party to the action. If this is a true form of sue and get paid, then it has to be stopped.

Unfortunately, terrorist tactics work only too well. We only have to look to the last Presidential primary. Here in TX, the terrorist tactics worked only too well to shut down the Clinton delegates and any resolutions they had were tabled at the state convention. They came away with nothing.

Now all one has to do is say they are entitled, and lawyers pop out of the woodwork like roaches. Political lawyers are the worst of the lot. Welocme to the land of scammers.

Hi Johnny B,
I think it is a great idea to see if the law could be changed somehow to make it so that warnings are necessary before anyone can sue.

But these suits are by private parties. The subpoena my friend was served with claimed only “emotional distress” (no damages). The emotional distress is because the plaintiff wanted to go into the store and (supposedly) could not park his van according to ADA regulations and was mentally distressed because of it. This store is a tiny shop on Venive Blvd in L. A. with 6 spaces in the back and plenty of street parking. The plaintiff lives in San Diego and works with 2 lawyers and has filed several hundred such suits. For 12 thousand dollars (!!!) the suit demanding a jury trial will be dropped.

Thank you for such a kind compliment.

Great Cartoon!

It shows how good intentions can go wrong by making laws so complicated that experts may not even agree on its interpretation. Or, it is either to costly to comply with or so difficult to understand for the average person hat it makes it easy for people, even with good intentions, to make mistakes. It also shows the importance that when a law is passed, it needs to be backed with sufficient money to implement it over time or do not pass it. For examples is this ADA law, where sufficient money needed to be provided so that every building and safety department has inspectors who can inspect and enforces these laws with the power to require changes. Have people available in every building and safety department who are experts in this field available so that any business owner, even very small ones, can have access to expert advice. This should never be a legal issue because unfortunately there are always lawyers who, under the clock of doing good will take advantage of a situation, when it is obvious that their main goal is to make money. This ADA law and the way lawyers and there plaintiffs are using it is not good for business, and especially small business which everyone says is the backbone of this economy, and the relationships between, Americans with Disability, the public and businesses.

I do believe we need lawyers, but we also need a good system that will protect us from lawyer abuse regardless what the situation is. This cartoon and story are a perfect example of lawyer abuse and the abuse of the court systems, which are overloaded already.

Rich

Nice cartoon on a troublesome issue. While it would be nice to lay blame on these lawyers, they are actually just doing what the law allows them to do. This is true of the plaintiffs too. Obviously, arguments about the morality or ethical nature of bringing these claims won’t change their behavior. As a result, it seems that the law should, as you suggest, be changed to give business owners a chance to fix the identified problems before a court is allowed to grant monetary damages to a plaintiff who wasn’t really injured anyway.

Frightening Cartoon!

I feel that the ADA law is a good example of a good intention going wrong. The law is very complicated to comply with and easy to violate. For small businesses it can be so costly as to require that they go out of business. No funds or not sufficient funds were made available to help the Building and Safety Departments to hire and train inspectors who could provide guidance and inspections that would insure that compliance was done correctly and in a reasonable time table. There is not a department one could apply to for exception if it could be proven that the changes required would be so costly as to force someone out of business. We hear much redirect that small businesses are important for the economy, but this is an example where there is no help for small businesses to protect themselves from unreasonable costs or law suites brought about by plaintiffs and attorneys, who under the cloak of protecting people with disabilities, are mainly interested in getting money. If they were really interested in protecting people with disabilities, they would first warn the business of any problem and ask that they remedy it in a reasonable time. Then they would go to a department like building and safety and ask them to intervene if the work is not done. Next they would sue the business for compliance without asking for money for the plaintiff when the plaintiff was not actually damaged, just inconvenienced.

I know that I can get very upset when I have to wait in a long line. So what if I was able to sue a business for making me stand in a long line, wasting my time, and getting me upset. Would that be OK? How many businesses could I close doing that? What if I said I was suing every business I could find with long lines as a way of protecting the public and all those damaged by having to stand in long lines? Would you be willing to pass a law like that?

I know that the ADA issue is much more serious, but numerous law suites of small businesses who can not afford to defend themselves or are in fear of the legal system, and therefore pay extortion money to settle a case, is not the answer. It is these small businesses that are the back bone of this economy. In addition it causes an advisory attitude between those with handicaps, the public who often see handicapped spaces empty, while the parking lot is full because they had to take two to three spaces away for one handicapped space, and businesses who recent being told what they have to do to stay in business especially if they can not afford to comply.

I do believe we need lawyers, but we also need a good system that will protect us from lawyer abuse regardless what the situation is. This cartoon and accompanying story is a perfect example of lawyer abuse and the abuse of the court systems, which are overloaded already and cost all of us money.

Rich

The L.A. TIMES wrote a column on Jan. 5 about serial litigant, Thomas Mundy, who believes he is a disability rights activist rather than an extortionist. As one reader commented, “If he were truly interested in improving access for the disabled, he would alert the offending businesses to the problem or barrier and request that it be corrected.” Instead, Mr. Mundy sues for personal damages.

One guy actually got stopped by the Supremem Court and isn’t allowed to do this anymore. But in the meantime over 200 “professonal litigants” have been identified, most teaming up with the same few attorneys. They have this down to a routine.

BTW, found another little business that could never afford the ransom, let alone a trial, where there is a handicapped place, but it would not be van accessible (need an wide space on the side). If you have only one parking place, it MUST be van accessible. This little place had about 4 spaces.