Lawyer sues 100 businesses claiming advocacy; patterns raise suspicious motive

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Some call it disability advocacy, others call it a shakedown. A Santa Fe attorney has filed a hundred lawsuits against Albuquerque businesses in a period of two months.

She claims all of these businesses violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and discriminated against one client. Patterns in the lawsuit seriously question the attorney's true motives.

The ADA is a federal law that covers guidelines on access for those with disabilities. It includes a set of codes detailing how parking lots should be set up, how high disabled signs should be from the ground and how wide parking spaces must be. It even sets guidelines for public bathrooms, including how many inches a soap dispenser can be from the sink and how wide stall doors have to be. If a business is one inch off, it could be in violation of the law.

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