In 2024, the state Assembly once again failed small businesses up and down California by its unwillingness to pass Senate Bill 585. This was critical legislation to end lawsuit abuse that needed immediate action.
For decades many small business owners have been embroiled in legal battles that have forced them to stare down the prospect of financial ruin. This legislation would have provided much-needed relief to these afflicted business owners in need.
The many problems tied to lawsuit abuse in California have reached a peak in recent years, with many small businesses being forced to shut their doors, lay off employees, or even flee the state for a more favorable business climate.
In an important attempt to fix this situation, the state Senate passed SB 585 in 2023. If it had become law, this bill would have addressed statutory damages, attorney fees, and the broken accessibility claims process. The bill would have also protected local businesses from unfair legal attacks, all while reaffirming the rights of disabled Californians. Rather than closing the door to just lawsuits, the bill would have realigned the incentives of trial attorneys to pursue justice and not personal enrichment.
But what did the Assembly do? It welcomed the legislation with deafening silence. Small businesses and concerned citizens like me were perplexed that it didn’t even get a chance to be heard.
Now that we are in 2025, one positive development has emerged — the ADA-curing bill has been reintroduced as Senate Bill 84. This is a renewed opportunity, under new leadership, for needed reforms to make their way through the Senate once again, and this time we hope for better news from the Assembly and its Judiciary Committee, which did not allow it to be heard in 2024.
Like the earlier bill, the new SB 84 would prohibit a construction-related accessibility claim for statutory damages from being initiated in a legal proceeding against a defendant who employs 50 or fewer individuals unless the defendant has been served with a letter specifying each alleged violation, and the alleged violations have not been corrected within 120 days of service of the letter. This is a very common-sense approach to addressing accessibility issues, protecting small businesses while preserving and improving accessibility for those in need.
To make California competitive and to attract small businesses and startups in the way the state once did, we must address the problem of rampant lawsuit abuse once and for all. The legislature must seize the chance to produce an economic win for our residents, and it ought to be jumping at the opportunity. Why would any legislator oppose such a bill?
Time will tell if SB 84 will become law, but if not, it is high time we as concerned citizens question our lawmakers about why they have been so lethargic in acting. For the sake of California’s small business community and disabled Californians exploited by trial attorneys, we need a victory in the war against lawsuit abuse. SB 84 is a critical next step that demands action today.
Victor Gómez is executive eirector of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.
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