WASHINGTON—The impact of “predatory” class action lawsuits related to website accessibility requirements surrounding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) continues to concern CUNA, which suggested the number of suits could be rising.
In a letter to its members Monday, CUNA emphasized that it remains engaged in combatting the class action threats.
“We remain seriously concerned about the impact this predatory litigation is having on credit unions ability to serve their members with safe and affordable products and services,” said Nussle in the letter.
“We continue to hear from credit unions across the country that they are being threatened with litigation from a handful of plaintiffs' law firms seeking to profit from the ambiguities in requirements for website accessibility,” continued Nussle. “I wanted to caution you that while many of these threats come from the Pacific Trial Attorneys, based in Newport Beach, Calif., in recent weeks credit unions have also received demand letters from ‘copycat’ law firms."
Nussle noted that the litigation is a top advocacy priority.
“Late last year, I met with Assistant Attorney General John Gore, who oversees the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ, to highlight credit union concerns and to urge the DOJ to address the frivolous litigation surrounding website accessibility,” Nussle said. “In addition, 61 members of Congress signed a letter to DOJ, at our urging, detailing the harm credit unions are facing from these threats.”
Nussle pointed out that recently the Department of Justice announced it has rescinded two Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemakings related to website accessibility under Title II of the ADA applicable to state and local governments and under Title III applicable to private businesses open to the public.
“We are also working closely with leagues and other groups to identify legal advocacy opportunities,” said Nussle. “We will be meeting with the senior counsel of the House Judiciary Committee next week to again discuss how we can stop these threats.”
Among the actions CUNA is taking to address the situation, it will hold a breakout session at its Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington to help credit unions “understand possible steps they can take to avoid these lawsuits,” Feb. 26 at 2:45 p.m.