"Newsletter – June 2007" table of contents
NEWSLETTER UPDATE – JUNE, 2007
FROM PHYLLIS F. RESNICK, PRESIDENT
HELLO, AGAIN, EVERYBODY!!!!!
Well, another 6 months have passed since our last newsletter and much continues to happen in the world of “Access Now”®. We have had several Class Action Fairness Hearings, a trial and many Settlements. It has been an active, interesting, challenging, sometimes aggravating, but mostly gratifying time! Some things are happening in the overall A.D.A. (Americans with Disabilities Act) world as well; more about all of the above later in this newsletter.
We would like to point out to those of you who are receiving this newsletter for the first time that, sadly, many entities continue to fail to comply with the A.D.A., despite the fact that the law was enacted in 1990. As we have said before, we continue to press on with cases against a variety of entities. On a continuing basis, virtually daily, we receive complaints from disabled persons who are routinely being denied their rights under this civil rights law. There is no such thing as a “large” or “small” case, only a large or small entity and we take pride in the fact that we do not limit our efforts to either category. The resolution of high profile cases of legal “first impression”, as well as of those involving neighborhood businesses have a great impact on the daily lives of the disabled among us (although we want to make clear that it is not our aim to put anyone out of business.)
WE WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN WITH THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM A MEMBER THAT WE BELIEVE SHOWS THAT THE “ACCESS NOW”® WAY OF APPROACHING LITIGATION IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
From: Edward Zwilling
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 12:35 PM
To: Gregory Schwartz
Subject: Re: Ed in the newspaper
They quote me — I spoke with the reporter on Thursday after the Bessemer meeting. Which reminds me, Jim Terry gave us and Access Now a very nice compliment at our last meeting. He commented to opposing counsel and the city engineer about how other plaintiff firms would be concerned with staying adversarial for purposes of generating fees but about how we are more concerned about collaborating to minimize expense to reach a resolution more quickly and thus better promote the cause of access. Opposing counsel took me aside and thanked me after the meeting.
(Note from the editors of this Newsletter: Jim Terry is one of the leading ADA architectural consultants in the nation.)