U.S. Firms Get Hit With Record Numbers of Disability Lawsuits

U.S. small businesses have been battling soaring inflation, labor shortages and supply-chain snarls during the pandemic. Now many are hit by another unexpected challenge: disability lawsuits.

Industry associations and business owners say serial plaintiffs filing dozens or hundreds of cases are increasingly using the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to extract tens of thousands of dollars in settlements — and not to promote access as the landmark civil-rights law intended.

Authorities have started to crack down. This week district attorneys in California announced a civil lawsuit against a law firm they say has filed “thousands of fraudulent, boilerplate lawsuits against small ...