[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. INOUYE:
  S. 782. A bill to amend title III of the Americans with Disabilities 
Act of 1990 to require, as a precondition to commencing a civil action 
with respect to a place of public accommodation or a commercial 
facility, that an opportunity be provided to correct alleged 
violations, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Americans 
with Disabilities Act, ADA, Notification Act. This bill would amend the 
ADA by including a notice requirement for violations of the ADA before 
a court could assume jurisdiction over the dispute. This would allow 
businesses the opportunity to bring properties into compliance without 
having to face costly litigation.
  The ADA currently does not contain a notice requirement, but allows 
plaintiffs to sue owners of non-compliant businesses immediately. While 
the public accommodations provisions in Title III of the ADA do not 
allow plaintiffs to collect damages for violations of any of its access 
standards, they do permit lawyers to collect attorneys fees. The lack 
of a notice requirement has encouraged a number of lawyers to sue 
businesses over infractions that are inexpensive to remedy, but for 
which the businesses must pay costly plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and 
expenses.
  I believe this legislation is a reasonable means to ensure that 
businesses will be given notice of violations of the ADA and the 
opportunity to comply with the ADA before costly litigation is begun. 
This would foster greater compliance with the ADA by allowing 
businesses to expend their resources on making their properties more 
accessible to the disabled, rather than on attorneys' fees.
  Please be assured that I simply want to close a loophole in the ADA 
that unscrupulous lawyers have exploited. I do not suggest or approve 
of any changes to the ADA that would weaken its substantive 
requirements for reasonable accommodation to persons with disabilities. 
We must ensure that the progress begun more than a decade ago continues 
as we work to make public accommodations more accessible to everyone.
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