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ADA Lawsuits Take Their Toll in Davis

CALA supporter Suresh Kumar was featured in the Davis Enterprise.  Here is a look at the story:

When lawsuits targeting businesses not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act first swept through Davis, Suresh Kumar saw the signs on Olive Drive.

Like dominoes, Redrum Burger, Shell and — eventually — Kumar’s Olive Drive Market joined the slate of businesses sued for ADA non-compliance. Kumar paid $6,000 to settle his lawsuit.

“The reason people settle is that if you’re actually going through the legal process, it’s probably 10 times more expensive,” he said. “People who are involved in the lawsuits are attorneys, and they know this.”

Read the story here

CEQA Reform is Critical

On February 17, the Orange County Register published a letter from Maryann Marino, Southern California Regional Director of CALA, agreeing with Steven Greenhut’s commentary that reforming the California Environmental Quality Act is critical to rebooting California’s economic prosperity. Here is what she had to say:

"Abusive lawsuits in general and abuse of CEQA in particular cost California thousands of productive jobs and throttle this state’s economic growth. Developments that could have become vibrant business and economic centers are left vacant and unused because of years of costly and unnecessary litigation.

California has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation. The more than 1 million lawsuits filed annually in California and the burdens of CEQA are major contributors to this sad fact. Let us hope that Greenhut’s prediction that the politically dominant, and newly accountable, Democratic Legislature will be more open to sincere CEQA reform is correct. This reform is long overdue.

We need more jobs, not more lawsuits."

To read the entire letter, click here.

Texas-Size Problem

On February 18, the Los Angeles Business Journal published commentary from Maryann Marino, Southern California Regional Director of CALA, regarding the recent dispute between California and Texas about job creation. Here is what she had to say:

"Californians, especially small-business owners, are crying out for relief from the threat of abusive lawsuits. Yet Brown, when faced with an opportunity to acknowledge how the state’s policies hamstring small businesses and carve a new path forward, instead compared the situation to flatulence.

If California doesn’t pass legal reform soon, the next questions reporters might be asking Brown might not be why businesses might move to Texas, but why they did move."

To read the entire commentary, click here.

LA Business Journal: Courting Disaster

CALA Co-Chair David Houston's commentary, "Courting Disaster," was published in the Los Angeles Business Journal. Houston wrote, "Nuisance suits have become law of the land and California is doing nothing to protect small businesses.

When I heard earlier this month that California had earned the humiliating title of the nation’s No. 1 “judicial hellhole” in the American Tort Reform Association’s 2012 Judicial Hellhole report, I have to admit I was not surprised. As a small-business owner in Los Angeles, I can personally attest to how California’s policies encourage abusive lawsuits that hurt small businesses and cost jobs.

My own experience with an abusive lawsuit opened my eyes to how damaging abusive lawsuits can be. A few years ago, my restaurant, Barney’s Beanery, was sued by former employees alleging that they did not receive the proper breaks mandated by law. While these accusations were completely baseless, I was forced to choose between paying expensive lawyers to litigate my case or quickly settle and move on. The settlement cost me almost $1 million and forced me to suspend my plans to expand my business and hire workers in downtown Los Angeles.

Why was I able to be sued even though I had done nothing wrong? For years, California’s lawmakers have encouraged lawsuits to be used as a mechanism to enforce regulations, and unscrupulous lawyers have increasingly taken advantage of their ability to sue by filing baseless lawsuits against small businesses like mine hoping for a quick settlement."

Read the full commentary here.

Univision covers CALA's Town Hall in Los Angeles

Univision broadcast a story about CALA's town hall discussion in South Gate on Wednesday, October 12. The event featured business owners and leaders of the Los Angeles-area city discussing how abusive lawsuits are hurting the city and its businesses, costing jobs and taxpayer dollars.

OC Register Cites CALA in Asking Readers to Reject Prop 37

The Orange County Register quoted CALA Executive Director Tom Scott in its editorial encouraging readers to vote against Prop 37. Here is what they had to say:

Tom Scott, Executive Director of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, charged that Prop. 37 would "allow anyone to sue small businesses and family farmers without any proof of a violation or damages." He is concerned it would propagate "shakedown lawsuits." We share his concern.

To read the entire editorial, click here.