[co-author: Susan Ryan]

In honor of the 26th anniversary of the ADA, we are sharing our mid-year count of ADA Title III lawsuits for 2016 and it’s newsworthy:  The number of lawsuits filed in federal court is already at 3,435, up 63% from last year’s mid-year number of 2,114.  If the pace continues, the 2016 total may top 7,000.  To put the numbers into perspective, more lawsuits were filed in the past six months than were filed in all of 2013 when there were a mere 2,722 lawsuits.  The three states with most lawsuits continue to be California, Florida, and New York, but there is a shake-up in the fourth position.  Arizona, with 230 lawsuits, has beaten out Texas.  Based on our own practice, most lawsuits continue to be about physical access barriers but there has been a steady increase in lawsuits about websites that are allegedly not accessible to individuals with disabilities.  We will be provide more analysis at the end of 2016, which promises to be another record-breaking year.