Crippling Lawsuits

Walter Olson relates the tale of an erstwhile flim-flam man and thief who's discovered that legal theft via Americans with Disabilities Act harassment is far more lucrative. The latest in his long string of lawsuits targets a winery whose dirt paths aren't easily traversed by wheelchair.

Comments

[Principal Skinner]

"When people ask me if we're compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act yet, I tell them, 'We're closer than ever before.'"

[minuteman]

What is truly sad is that the current exploitation of the ADA by so many gold diggers actually hurts the very people the Act was designed for: The veterans who fought our battles for us -- sacrificing eyes, limbs, and Lord knows what else.

[Plutarck]

Similarly, minuteman, the definition of "disability" is simply being altered and expanded to cover all sorts of things - what seemed like such a good idea at the time seems like it will inevitably declare being considered unnattractive, having bad breath a disability, having no people skills (ie, being an asshole - "he was abused as a child, you see, so it's not his fault"), and who can even imagine what else as disabilities.

One can be forgiven for thinking that they don't _want_ people to pay other people for goods or services, such as labor. I know I personally have decided to channel my creative and productive interests more into real-estate partly because at least the people an investor hires there are not employees, but contractors - one is in the role of the consumer, which at least up till now is largely protected from "You can't think that way!" laws (you can choose not to buy something from someone for absolutely any reason whatsoever - consumption and zero-price exchanges is the only place that freedom of association seems to exist anymore). It's just becoming too much of a hassle to worry about some jackass suing you for making some generally unapproved of choice - better to redirect one's efforts to less regulated activities.

[Kevin Carson]

I wonder how hard it is to get an "Oppositional Defiance Disorder" Dx? I've already got a reputation among my coworkers as having a toxic attitude toward authority. I might as well make it pay--almost as good as faking Tourette's!

[stive23]

it's always leave something inconvenient?