litigation

But the Issue Isn’t Going Away So Be Prepared!

In a surprising twist in a case we’ve been following closely, disability rights activist Deborah Laufer withdrew her complaint against a small hotel that she charged had failed to meet ADA disclosure standards on its website. Since she filed her lawsuit, the hotel has been sold and new owners have posted the required information. And Laufer has said she doesn’t plan to add to the 600+ lawsuits she has filed against hotels.

That led several justices to declare the case moot at oral arguments.

“The case before us is dead as a door nail,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. declared.

“This is like dead, dead, dead, in all the ways something can be dead,” Justice Elena Kagan followed.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the chorus with Jackson asking the lawyer for the hotel why he was “asking us to take on extra work to end a case when we’ve all agreed it has to be ended.”

The attorney argued that there is an important legal issue at the heart of the case: Do “testers” who are examining websites of hotels they have no intention of staying at have standing to file a lawsuit?

Chief Justice John Roberts was the lone voice from the bench urging his colleagues to decide the issue now rather than kicking the can down the road. Read more.

TravelAbility TakeAway: Destinations may want to share this with their hotel GM’s and get ahead of this issue before they are forced to. We agree with Justice Roberts that the issue isn’t going away. Better to have some of the required specifics up on your site and add to it over time than not to have anything up.

And it shouldn’t be that hard. All GM’s need to do is provide a separate landing page listing the same accessibility features they have on their room descriptions along with room and bathroom images in their photo galleries. It’s really about good customer service, so that guests with disabled family members don’t have to be detectives to see if it fits their needs. Here’s a best practice example from a hotel in San Francisco, who told us that the landing page saves an immeasurable amount of time and training of front desk staff. It’s much easier and quicker to have a reference page to point vs. fielding a lot of questions. 

Addendum: On December 5th, the Supreme Court announced that it will not decide who wins this case because it is moot due to the plaintiff’s withdrawal of the case.  The declaration may be a win for disability rights law, and for broader civil rights law, as a decision in the case could have put an end to “tester standing,” an important way civil rights laws are enforced in this country. But the issue will certainly loop back around the court system.

All nine justices agreed that the case was moot and should not be decided. Seven of the justices agreed that the lower court’s decision is also moot. One justice (Ketanji Brown Jackson) thought the lower court decision (in favor of the disabled plaintiff) should remain on the books.