California ADA: Dependable Legal Help with ADA Compliance; Defense of Lawsuit Against Business or Employer

Dependable Legal Help on All Aspects the Americans With Disabilities Act - by Experienced San Diego Attorneys

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California disability laws has become a business necessity, as lawsuits in this area become more commonplace.  If you are a business owner, employer, landlord, or tenant, San Diego Law Firm's knowledgeable attorneys will advise you on meeting your compliance obligations and on how you can alleviate your compliance costs.  If a lawsuit has been filed against you or your business for non-compliance, you can depend on our experienced attorneys to skillfully defend you to resolve the dispute and allow you to once again focus on running your business.

Compliance and Lawsuit Prevention Advice for Businesses

Whether your business is large or small, the ADA and California laws may require you to take steps to provide persons with disabilities or medical conditions better access to your business.   While ADA and California requirements can be quite complicated, our attorneys can give you practical explanations of what your business needs to do to be compliant, including advice on the following:

• We can determine whether your business is covered by the ADA and California disability laws.  Generally, you will be required to comply if your business offers goods and services to the public, or if you operate a warehouse, office building, and other commercial facility. 
• The ADA and California disability laws do not impose precise standards that businesses must uniformly comply with.  Instead, what's required of your business varies from case to case, and can depend on your resources, the access improvements that are needed, the size and nature of your business, and so on.  We can assess these factors in light of your particular business and tell you exactly what you will need to do to be compliant.
• We will inform you about what types of accessibility issues should be given priority to reduce the chances of a lawsuit being filed against your business.
• If you will be constructing a new building or making modifications to existing buildings, we will advise you on the stricter standards your business must comply with.
• We can help you to modify your business's policies and practices as needed to make sure you're not inadvertently excluding persons with disabilities.  This typically requires only simple changes to your practices.
• Some types of disabilities can require extra effort at compliance.  We will alert you to the special considerations related to persons who have problems with seeing, hearing, or speaking; problems with wheelchairs and other mobility restrictions; chronic disease resulting in disability; and other mental, emotional, and physical disabilities.
• We can help you ensure that your employees are properly trained and know how to assist persons with different types of disabilities, and that adequate records are maintained of these training sessions.
• We will consult with you on the best ways to fulfill your ongoing obligation under the ADA and California disability laws to keep your business accessible.
• We can help you minimize the impact of your business expenses that arise from improving accessibility by utilizing tax credits and deductions to offset certain costs. 

Compliance and Lawsuit Prevention Advice for Employers

As an employer, your dealings with current and potential employees may be regulated by disabilities laws under the ADA and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which prohibit discrimination in employment and might require you to take steps to facilitate a disabled employee in the performance of his or her duties.  As your attorneys, we will answer your questions and ensure you understand how to maintain business practices that are ADA and FEHA compliant so you can avoid potential non-compliance lawsuits.  We can help you with all of the following:

• Identifying which disabilities laws apply to your business, if any. More employers are covered by the FEHA than by the ADA, and each has its own standards to abide by. 
• Working with you to create employment practices that prevent any unintentional discrimination against protected groups. California and federal law have important differences for determining which employees and applicants are disabled or have a covered medical condition.  These laws likely cover conditions that you may not have guessed to qualify as a disability, such as alcoholism. 
• Identifying the specific steps or adjustments you need to make to equal “reasonable accommodations” - required by disability laws before you can reject certain applicants for inability to do the work, and when you handle employee matters.  We will also advise you on when accommodations are not legally required.
• Creating hiring policies that avoid unlawful inquiries or conditions while still allowing you to properly assess whether an applicant is qualified, and we will review your qualification standards to make sure they are compliant.  We will also advise you on creating and maintaining hiring records that can be used to challenge discrimination claims, such as proper job descriptions.
• Determining what constitutes discrimination under disability laws, preventing discrimination in all aspects of your employment relationship, and deciding what you should document to guard against discrimination allegations.  You'll then know when you need to be especially careful.  For example, discrimination issues can arise regarding access to benefits, physical access to facilities, and your employment decisions, including termination and promotions.
• Complying with disability laws requiring that you provide employees with certain notices and keeping records. 
• Developing leave policies that comply with the ADA and other disabilities laws.  You may be required to provide leave time for an employee with a disability.  Additionally, employees who have a child or need to deal with serious medical conditions might have leave rights under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).  We can give you experienced, reliable advice on whether and when your employees have leave and reinstatement rights.
• Taking tax credits and deductions that available to your business to reduce your compliance expenses.

Compliance and Lawsuit Prevention Advice for Commercial Landlords and Tenants

When commercial space is leased to a business, both the landlord and the commercial tenant must comply with the ADA and other laws that provide disabled persons with access to the business.  However, your lease agreement may have assigned primary responsibility for ADA compliance to either the landlord or the tenant. The obligated party will then be responsible for paying any discrimination award, and the non-obligated party will have to pay only whatever balance is due once the obligated party's assets are exhausted.

If you are a commercial landlord or tenant, San Diego Law Firm can help you comply with the ADA and avoid being sued. We can assist you with all of the following:

• If you already have a commercial lease, we can tell you what your ADA obligations are according to that lease, and according to the law.
• We can also negotiate with the other party to modify your lease to clearly establish who is primarily responsible for ADA compliance, and how the obligation is to be shared.  Settling these issues early can help you avoid ADA compliance expenses that are not your responsibility, and to recover your expenses in defending a lawsuit.
• If you are obligated under the lease to maintain the premises in compliance with ADA and California disability laws, we will advise you on who is protected and considered disabled and the steps your particular business must take to be sufficiently accessible. We can also advise you on ADA compliance for new construction and building modifications. 
• If you are a commercial tenant and have not yet signed a lease agreement, or will be renewing your lease, we can help you negotiate your lease terms to minimize your liability under the ADA.

Compliance and Lawsuit Prevention Advice for Residential Landlords

In renting out residential property, you must comply with laws such as the federal Fair Housing Act that prohibit housing discrimination on the basis of disability.  Additionally, when housing is offered for rent and lease, California law guarantees access rights to persons with disabilities.  San Diego Law Firm can help you avoid lawsuits for disability discrimination by advising you on:

• Practices, policies, and contracts, and the adjustments you may need to make to your rental practices. 
• The types of modifications you must permit a tenant to do to accommodate his or her disability. 
• For multifamily housing, when you must comply with wheelchair accessible construction or other accessibility designs.
• What practices you should avoid so as not to violate the ADA. We can also draft your rental agreement to prevent violations. An example of this: if your rental agreement does not prohibit tenants from running a business from their unit, you may end up with ADA compliance obligations to the tenant's customers -- obligations that you would not otherwise have.

Defense of Lawsuits for Non-Compliance with Disability Laws

San Diego Law Firm is experienced in defending businesses, employers, landlords, and tenants against suits for non-compliance under the ADA, FMLA, FEHA, and other state and federal disability laws.  We will carefully review discrimination or accessibility claims brought against you and advise you on your options.  As your legal counsel, we will help you resolve your disability compliance problem in a way that will help minimize disruption and expense to you and your business. 

Benefits to Our Clients

We are committed to keeping our clients fully informed and offering them the guidance and support they need to make good choices between different legal alternatives.  San Diego Law Firm will ensure that all of your legal matters are supervised by a seasoned senior partner who will act as your Personal Legal Representative and oversee your legal affairs, even if another attorney is performing a particular service for you. For as long as we represent you, you will receive the same dedication and quality of service that brought you to us in the first place.

How to Contact San Diego Law Firm

We handle matters throughout California, and new clients are always welcome. For more information or to make an appointment, please contact us either by:

Telephone: (619) 794-0243

E-mail: contactus@SanDiegoLawFirm.com
 

We can be reached by telephone Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You may also use the form below to contact us. This form is answered Monday through Friday during the work day. Please remember that for us to become your attorneys, we must first have a written attorney-client agreement signed by both of us, so please do not email any confidential information at this point. After we have reached an agreement with you, we can then exchange information freely. We look forward to helping you.

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