Is your site ADA Compliant?
I recently attended a seminar in Nashville and was shocked to discover that "drive by lawsuits" are on the rise in Florida and expected to catch-on across the country. Individuals are teaming up with attorneys - not ambulance chasers because the injury hasn't even happened yet! - to target sites that are not ADA compliant. Ramps, signage, clear pathways, and parking accessibility are easy to spot from the road and in some cases from sites like Google Earth. These suits are being tagged by industry officials as "Google Lawsuits". From the comfort of their home, people are researching sites, zooming in on the slightest details and promptly reporting non-compliance. In one example, a single plaintiff had 62 lawsuits pending against hotels in Florida for not having a pool lift. It was determined that the individual used a website to view the sites and never actually stayed at the hotels in question. The bad news is that it didn't matter - they were not ADA compliant and the suits are moving forward.
Is your site ADA compliant? There are federal regulations that start as a baseline, but to be sure you really need to drill down. The rules can change town by town. Intercounty Paving has been working diligently to keep the sites we work on safe and compliant. New projects are typically "compliant" because you are answering to an engineer or town official. The problem I encounter is when we are called in to redo a parking lot or HOA. There is normally extra cost to bring the site up to code and people don't want to go over budget, but its cheaper than the possibility of a lawsuit. To other contractors: I recommend that if you make suggestions that are not accepted - put that in your contract and have the client sign off on it. Also check with the town or village you are working in - the regulations may be different than the last one you worked in!
If you want to know if your location is compliant give me a call - I make site visits.
