Can anyone give me some legal advice? I am being sued

[Snusdog]

This guy is going around and purposely suing businesses? I would definitely look into a free consultation and/or 'leak' your story to the news media as a warning to other business owners and maybe even earn supporters. Surely a free consult could tell you what all info you could legally pass on to the media. Put this guy out of business!

I think getting the media involved is a good idea. I'd get the other business that have been sued and ask the media to sit down with you guys. You all might also want to contact the Mayor's office and your local chamber of commerce. There are folks and groups who still have businesses not being run out of town in their best interest.

[vodkaniac]

Let's not take it out of context man

You're kidding, right? I'm sitting here in a wheelchair and someone says "screw the handicapped," I think the appropriate response is to say screw you right back to them. I didn't quote the rest of what he said because it was a legitimate opinion - not one I agree with, but still a reasonable enough point of view and one that many others share. "Screw the handicapped" however was an inflamatory thing to say and indefensible in any context.

[lxskllr]

. "Screw the handicapped" however was an inflamatory thing to say and indefensible in any context.

Indefensible eh? So you guys feel you should have EVERY single access regular people have, and if you don't get it, sue? If that's the stance you're taking, screw you too.

[LaZeR]

well if you are serving him food at the door then just put alittle something xtra in his food. Say........arsenic for example. Problem solved.

+1

[daruckis]

i second the motion to punch him in the face.

[sgreger1]

I think getting the media involved is a good idea. I'd get the other business that have been sued and ask the media to sit down with you guys. You all might also want to contact the Mayor's office and your local chamber of commerce. There are folks and groups who still have businesses not being run out of town in their best interest.

There are multiple newspaper and magazines articles about CA's gold rush of ADA lawsuits around already, everyone knows about it and it's not news. The chamber of commerce and the small business community has been trying to push for some common sense reform, the republicans tried to bring that by adding a stipulation that businesses have 90 days to fix it once a complain is lodged, but the democrats stuck it down and in return trippled the minimum penalty for being out of compliance. As long as democrats run this state, there is no hope for businesses.

[sgreger1]

Indefensible eh? So you guys feel you should have EVERY single access regular people have, and if you don't get it, sue? If that's the stance you're taking, screw you too.

I just don't get why they even need to make stupid laws like this. It should be common sense. There are 2.5 million handicapped people in CA, that is a huge market to be ignoring. Like I said, when he came to our place, we were quick to serve him. We want money, so we will not turn down any customer. You don't have to write a bunch of crazy forcing people to serve minorities or to help handicapped people be able to buy your product, if a business wants to make money they will serve you. We walked out and took his order, then brought it to him in a nice to-go container, and even offered to help push him up over the 3 inch step since he was having difficulty. Laws like the ADA give a bad name to all handicapped people.

New structures should be required to be reasonably accessible, but structures built in the 70's, (especially in small places like san francisco) are just too small and too difficult to renovate. Making all the doors wider and shit is just hard to do, making the isles super wide cuts down on the number of isles you can sell things on. These are small properties the size of an apartment. Buying ultra-lightweight doors that a triplegic can open is just not cost effective. Forcing businesses to do this is robbery. Even if they just made you fix the problem I would be okay with it, but every guy in a wheelchair who feels a ramp is at too much of an incline is automatically entitled to $4,000? That's insane.

@ Vodkaniak. This isn't about handicapped people, it's about stupid laws. Trust me, if I thought you were going to spend money at my store I would hire a guy to stand out there and personally lift every guy that comes by in a wheelchair into the restaurant. This crazy payout lawsuit scam just for being handicapped is a joke though. Handicapped people should be served like everyone else, but remodeling entire facilites just to make their experience EXACTLY the same as a non-handicapped person is unreasonable and, in practice, unaccomplishable in any real way for small businesses.

[raptor]

Indefensible eh? So you guys feel you should have EVERY single access regular people have, and if you don't get it, sue? If that's the stance you're taking, screw you too.

You're making the issue black and white. i.e. if you're pro-ADA/handicapped, you're for this moron suing. And telling a disabled individual to screw himself because of hamfisted government policies...?

[sgreger1]

I and my company has been sued before. Once i got sued for $127,000,000 and i am not bsing either. i won't go into details but it went on for two years. never went to court and cost me a zillion dollars in attorney fees and settlement cost.

when i first started dealing with the courts i thought just like some of the posters here. forget what you think you know about the law and getting sued. forget what they do on tv and how justice always wins out. that stuff is for law virgins, morons, and children. Believe me, the usa court system does not work the way you think it does.

i am not an attorney.... but i have paid them a lot of money.

First off, you are going to pay one way or another PERIOD end of story.

You will NOT explain to a judge anything until you have paid out your nose to an attorney first. Unless the guy just drops the case and from him suing all those others he won't be doing that.

You live in the absolute worst state in the united states of america to get sued in. It don't matter if you was the pope and married to mother teresa and had perry mason for your attorney AND had video tapes of this guy walking around and dancing. If all that was true you would still pay out your nose if you wanted to go to trial and then you would lose.

Run, don't walk to an attorney and expect to put up a retainer in this case of at least $3000. First thing try to get the atterney to settle with the guy for like $2000. Make sure the settlement includes anything related to this case. iow, he takes the money and he cant sue you for the days he was put out. He will reject the $2000 and counter offer you $3000-$5000 and you take it as soon as possible. The sooner you take his offer the less money you have to pay an attorney.

if you are truly broke and figure on getting out of it that way expect to close your shop.

Sorry for the dark news but it's just the truth.

The sooner you put this away the less money overall it will cost you. Forget being "wrong" or what people will think because this is just our reality. people do not and cannot understand until they go through it. Getting sued by someone just trying to get money and you have not done anything or have not hurt anyone feels like getting raped. Bend over and get it over with as fast as you can :-(

if it is worth anything, i feel for you and will pray for you.

I don't know how I missed this comment lol. This is exactly the reality of the situation. There is no way we won't have to pay this money, and I accept that. This is why I was saying forget a lawyer. It will just add to my cost and provide no benefit to my situation. This guy wants his $4k + attorney fees and he is going to get it one way or another. Best to just pay him off. It's extortion and racketeering but that is perfectly legal in my state. The handicapped mafia is going to all the storefronts and raping and pillaging what they can.


This state is crazy, but this city is crazier. NOTHING makes sense here, and everyone is an idiot. The McDonalds down the street from me eliminated the dollar menu because the franchise owner wanted to make more money, raising the cost of a double cheeseburger by 50 cents. This wouldn't be a big deal anywhere else, but in san francisco it has turned into a giant protest because Mcdonalds is allegedly "trying to exterminate the homeless" via this 50 cent increase. I will remind you all that a bum in San Francisco makes on average $50 a day begging for money on any given corner, according to studies. This puts them at a higher income than 50% of people on planet earth, and is 25x the average income of the majority of people living in our neighbor country Mexico. Yet this 50 cent increase is hailed as some kind of nazi extermination plot to kill the homeless, and all the idiot leftists here are buying into it and joining the cause.


There is no place on planet earth that could possibly be more backwards than CA, yet everyone here thinks that WE are the ones ahead of the game. There is nothing advanced in this San Francisco culture, it is barbarism with a pretty face painted on it. Graffiti is called art and homeless drug addicts stealing from others are called victims. It's ran by an idiot freak mayor, filled with idiot freak citizens, and accompanied by a moron bozo legal system that is intent on squashing any middle class that may still exist.

If a nuclear device were to go of in any city, I pray to any God that may exist that it be San Francisco. My families lives are nothing compared to the great justice that would be accomplished by destroying this god-awfull city from hell.

/rant

[KCOLLINS18]

I think when who ever said "screw the handicap" they meant the handicapped person who goes to a public place just to look for flaws in that business’s accessibility, then to sue them. AMERICANS ARE MONEY HUNGRY!! Look how messed up our government is, their some greedy m-fers!

About a year ago I received a letter saying I was being sued for $10,000 from a small fender bender I had with a guy from 2 1/2 or 3 years ago. I hit his Chevy 2500HD lifted truck in my small ford escort ZX2 from behind going no more than 5mph. I had about $2,500 worth of damages, for his trunk the bumper was lifted maybe an 1" if that. He was suing me for "Loss of enjoyment of life" and "Anxiety!" What kind of claim is that? My insurance company told me that they were going to fight it, since they thought it was a bogus claim, but of course they settled out of court to pay out less. Now my insurance is double than what I paid before because of his bogus claim.

Sometimes I would like to dig those papers up, put his address in my GPS, drive to his house and beat the living crap out of him, so then he would have a perfectly good reason to sue me.

[raptor]

I think when who ever said "screw the handicap" they meant the handicapped person who goes to a public place just to look for flaws in that business’s accessibility, then to sue them. AMERICANS ARE MONEY HUNGRY!!

Sorry, I don't buy that.

It's the same of us vs. them logic which is dividing America. Unless you think it's perfectly fine to say "screw Islam" because of 9/11, "screw Mexicans" because of illegal immigrants and "screw black people" because of escalated crime in a poor area.

[tom502]

I'm gonna try and get so big and fat that I can't get through doors or sit at regular booths, and then start suing! yeah, I'll be set for life!

[sgreger1]

I'm gonna try and get so big and fat that I can't get through doors or sit at regular booths, and then start suing! yeah, I'll be set for life!

Welcome to The American Dream 2.0 (TM) my friend.

[Premium Parrots]

I'm gonna try and get so big and fat that I can't get through doors or sit at regular booths, and then start suing! yeah, I'll be set for life!

but then you will have to pay the airlines for two seats when you travel.

there is something fundimentally wrong with all this.

[WickedKitchen]

this SUCKS Sgregr. Sorry to hear this.

Someone needs to walk up behind this guy on the street and rub shit in his hair. I mean actual feces. For twenty bucks you could easily get hundreds of kids to do this. Once is not enough...repeatedly. The kids runs by and smoosh...keeps running. It would take this guy a hell of a lot of effort to clean himself up. The kids would laugh their asses off at it. I would laugh my ass off at it. He'd feel...uhh...shitty.

Either that or take him for a ride to Modesto and rent a boat. A nice little fishing trip, perhaps.

I think I've heard about this guy (or at least something like it) on Handel too. Makes me sick.