Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Last year we witnessed the filing of a first of its kind putative class-action lawsuit claiming that gift cards that did not contain Braille violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) along with similar state and local laws. Within weeks, more than 240 nearly identical complaints had been filed against a multitude of retailers and restaurant chains in New York. Recently, a federal judge issued the first opinions in these gift card cases dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims. While the court granted the plaintiffs the ability to amend their complaints, it is unclear how they will be able to successfully retool the complaints given that the opinions soundly rejected the plaintiffs’ theories of liability.
The court’s first opinion came in a case captioned Dominguez v. Banana Republic LLC. In the following days, the same judge released similar opinions dismissing six additional Braille gift card lawsuits before him on the same grounds. The factual circumstances in the seven cases are similar. In each case, the plaintiffs alleged that they called the defendant and asked whether the defendant’s gift cards contained the information printed on the cards in Braille. After the defendant responded that the gift cards did not contain Braille, the plaintiffs filed suit alleging violations of the ADA and various state and local laws. Each case was filed as a putative class action on behalf of the named plaintiff and a nationwide class of similarly situated blind individuals. Continue reading ›