May 16, 2000

Honorable Charles T. Canady

House Judiciary Committee- Constitution Subcommittee

H2-362 Ford House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

RE: H.R. 3290, ADA Notification Act

Dear Congressman Canady:

I write this letter to supplement the oral presentation that I will be giving at the upcoming hearing before your committee on May 18, 2000.

I write this letter to express to you my support for amending the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) in regards to providing notification to businesses and property owners prior to filing suit.

Although I consider myself to be an advocate for the disabled and other persons who have been historically discriminated against, I find it repulsive that the ADA has been used in the South Florida area as a conduit for lawyers to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees under the guise of advocating for the disabled.

Over the past two years, south Florida Federal and State Courts have been inundated with lawsuits alleging ADA violations. The primary target seems to be small businesses who can ill afford to fight and who eventually are forced to pay their adversaries fees. I have been representing quite a few small businesses in the south Florida area who, without any prior notice, find themselves faced with not only expensive modifications to their businesses, but then are faced with a demand for thousands of dollars in attorneys fees when, in most cases, very little work has been done on the case by the Plaintiff’s attorneys.

Last year, I represented a small business owner whose tenant sells baseball cards in the Lake Worth, Florida area. Upon correcting the deficiencies noted in the Plaintiff’s complaint, he was then met with a demand for $4,500.00 in attorneys fees and costs. In comparing the work that had been done by the attorneys representing the Plaintiff with the other 30 to 40 lawsuits that were filed at about the same time, it became a apparent to me that forms were being used over and over again and that there was nowhere near $4,500.00 worth of work in the case. This example is one of many that have occurred in the South Florida area. Because of the Federal Court’s position that attorneys fees are recoverable for arguing entitlement to and the amount of attorneys fees, my clients have often times found themselves fighting an uphill battle. To pay me to fight and attend a hearing on attorneys fees, that will result in the same out of pocket expense to my clients, often times makes no sense.

I support requiring notification to be given to certain businesses, the owners of which, have usually never heard of the ADA and/or are unaware of its provisions. The local governing authorities that are responsible for issuing occupational permits do very little to ensure compliance with either the ADA or the State of Florida’s statewide disability laws. For that reason, almost everyone of my clients, upon being sued, discovered that the issuance of a certificate of occupancy does not indicate that the property is compliant. Furthermore, because of the limited educational efforts associated with ADA compliance/awareness, many business owners are not aware that their properties are non-compliant. New businesses are often times are allowed to open without technically being in compliance with disability laws.

It is my belief that the Americans with Disabilities Act is a great law, one of the finest anti-discrimination laws our country has ever passed. However, I believe it is time to fine tune this law such that a requirement of prior warning or notification exists for certain businesses. However, the notification requirement should not prevent the pursuit of class action cases against large companies that have multiple offices or franchises within our country and usually refuse to make company/franchise wide changes without being sued on a class wide basis.

I look forward to expressing these thoughts and others to our nation at the upcoming congressional hearing.

Sincerely,

Joseph R. Fields, Jr.

JRF/lb

cc: Senator Mark Foley