The Man Who Filed More Than 180 Disability Lawsuits

DanVy Vu was out on the floor of her restaurant one chilly evening in December 2019 when a staff member called her to the hostess station to assist an angry customer — a man in a wheelchair who, along with his wife, had been stuck outside. The couple said that they had tried the accessible entrance through a courtyard but found the gate locked, which had left the man shivering out in the cold while his wife circled back to a non-accessible entrance at the front of the restaurant for help opening the gate.

The customer, Albert Dytch, filed a lawsuit following the incident. Dytch is a 71-year-old man with muscular dystrophy who has filed more than 180 ADA lawsuits in California. With the support of a prolific lawyer named Tanya Moore, Dytch has sued restaurants, movie theaters, shops, educational institutions and even hotels.

Our take: These serial lawsuits have created fear among hoteliers in Florida, California and New York, where ambulance-chasing lawyers claim that, since the ADA laws have little or no enforcement capabilities, litigation is really the default method of enforcement.  Although some courts have proposed a 30-45 day cooling-off period that allows businesses to make corrections, the disability community opposes this as, they contend, the businesses have had 30 years to conform. Who’s right?

To read the full story, see the New York Times article.