Good for you, Amy. This is ruining our country.

I have a lot of things to say about this. But the thing that kind of boggled me is:

How would they make the viewing area wheel-chair height accessible?

They could build "down" so that the people are essentially cooking in a pit...like how when you go to the symphony the orchestra is lower than the other seats. But then they could see up my skirt b/c I don't have a wheel chair and am tall?

Or they could have a little ramp? Or the counter could be table-height and they'd cook sitting down or hire midgets? Am I allowed to say midgets?

It seems like any solution to the "problem" would be fairly ridiculous and costly. I don't think cost should necessarily be a point of argument where a true case of disabled access is present but there are no damages here. There is no equal access or safety issue. The guy is not harmed.

He gets Friday's Asshole Award.

We're losing the concept that disabled means just that. You're not going to be able to partake in every experience because you are, in fact, disabled.

My fiance owns a dive business, and he gets morbidly obese people wanting to dive. It's very dangerous - most diving-related deaths involve overweight, middle aged people - but he can't discriminate (a 400 pd guy sued another company for refusing to take him and won).

The other day, he had a guy with no legs. Now, the guy has these special fins that allow him to dive and propel himself through the water, but he can't easily get back on the boat unless the weather is calm. They had a day of rougher seas and everyone was sweating his reaction to being told he couldn't go. It wasn't safe, yet, he argued about it.

There is another dive company that has a lift for disabled people like him - very expensive outfitting of a boat for that purpose - but he won't dive with them because he wants to be like a regular person. It doesn't matter the extra accomodations a business has to make just for him (extra time, extra staff, etc). These people are in denial that life has changed because of their disability and suits like this just reinforce that flawed idea.

I'm going to insist that McDonald's make the type on their menus in thousand-point font so I can see it from the back of the restaurant like people who are not near-sighted. Fair's fair.

This Chipotle case is sooooooooooooooooo reminiscent of the nonsense going on here in Canada with our "human rights" commissions. Some examples:

1. http://ezralevant.com/2008/04/the-human-right-for-mcdonalds.html

2. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/07/15/ottawa-imperial-hair.html

3. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Many+adults+like+child+unfriendly+restaurant+policy/3243835/story.html

With Common Sense!

Here you go, another example of this kind of nonsense.

http://retail.ocregister.com/2010/07/30/99-cents-only-stores-sued-over-price-increase/31781/

I know the attorney and the firm representing "the class" I'd make a snide comment here, but I'll behave.

Clearly, the fed gov. needs to buy wheelchairs for the disabled that have lift kits. I'm going to apply to the gov. for a grant to start up "Big Foot Wheelchairs Co.".

Perhaps I can sue the local blood bank because I don't weigh enough to give blood. Or, I should've tried to sue a waterpark while I was pregant last summer, since I wouldn't have been able to go down the water slides...

There was a story on the local news last week about how some local groups had filed dozens of lawsuits around Texas because they didn't have "equal access" to various businesses.
http://www.news8austin.com/content/272873/local-organizations-file-20-lawsuits-statewide
"The days of us being left behind because of our disabilities or because of other peoples bigoted or discriminatory practices will be a thing of the past," Jennifer McPhail, with ADAPT of Texas, said.McPhail said she hopes these cases will be resolved out of court. The point is not to sue, but rather to gain fair access to these places, she said."

Anyway, the extra expenses we incurred to make our restaurant fully handicapped accessible were astronomical. It was neccessary, of course, because there are plenty of people like Antoninetti who will come into your establishment specifically to find a reason to sue you.

Lawyer's aside:

Amy, you may want to change this: "Because of that, I've volunteered to be (and am) one of two lead plaintiffs in a suit Ted Frank is bringing."

To this:

"Because of that, I've volunteered to be (and am) one of two class members objecting to a proposed settlement."

Othewise, it reads like you're opposing unscrupulous class actions by filing one.

New Law:
No attorney(or legal corporation), may receive an award from any class action suit that exceeds the value of the award received by any individual member of the class.

Problem Solved.

Thanks, Snakeman...doing that.

"Am I allowed to say midgets?"

No. You are supposed to say "vertically challenged". Otherwise you will hear from my lawyer.

Please read the article below to improve your attitude and widen your view.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/603849/why_tall_women_should_date_short_men.html?cat=41

I have gynecomastia (man-boobs) and swimmers ear, so I currently do not swim. Fuethermore, I'm not cute, so I don't have much luck with women. Maybe I should sue God.

To all you people whining and suing: boo-hoo. You are being grossly inconsiderate to the rest of us. Now grow up!

Given ADA is federally mandated, wouldnt any cost a business incured to comply quaify as tax deductable?

I know how to end this.

Make ugly people a protected class under ADA, and then let them sue hot chicks for refusing to have sex with them.

In an office building I used to work in the owner wanted to do some remodelling including updating the bathrooms. For years they fought with the government because the remodelling meant they had to complete with the new codes.

The problem was that they could put the legally required number of toilets and also the number of wheelchair accessible toilets. The bathrooms had escape staircases one side, elevator shafts on another, and escape route hallways on the other two. Thus it could not be expanded without extremely major remodelling - the only option would to be create bathrooms in a new part of the building (and they were not at all plumbed for it). Finally, the government gave in because nothing would be done otherwise.

Gods.

Nobody should be able to file a lawsuit except over physical or financial harm done to them as a result of somebody else's activity.

Frankly I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't just chuck the Americans With Disabilities Act altogether.

The fact, unfortunately, is that when you are or become disabled, your life is NOT going to be the same as everyone elses. Now I'm all for city services being made readily available...but the fact is that every citizen pays to support those services. Be it a bus lift or a ramp leading up into a courthouse or library, the facilities in question are public.

However mandating private access we run into a problem.

Those are not publicly funded entities. They do not collect public taxes to provide a public service. They are there to MAKE money, and that means the only income they have comes from voluntary patronage.

Sure it sounds great to say, "All restaurants must have wheel chair ramps leading to the entrance" and other assorted code requirements, but when code requirements end up costing $30,000, where does that money come from? How many wheelchair patrons can a private business hope to get, to make up the cost of putting that access ramp in place?

If disabled citizens want special accomadations from private entities in order to patronize them, then a special tax should exist UPON disableds, to pay for it. Just shoving that cost onto businesses and saying "eat the cost or eat the lawsuit" is wrong.

Didn't say I was ugly. Just average-looking; we have our problems, too.

SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR AVERAGE-LOOKING PEOPLE!!!

Make ugly people a protected class under ADA, and then let them sue hot chicks for refusing to have sex with them.

Who needs to sue hot women when you got...MAGAZINES!!!

I'm sort of split on the ADA. I agree the general idea was that the majority of businesses need to be generally accessible -- i.e. a store should have aisles at least wide enough to allow a wheelchair through them easily. A ramp (at the front, side, or rear door) to allow someone in.

I can even agree with having a buzzer on the pump at self-serve gas stations.

But then you have the Lawsuit over bathroom mirror 2 inches too high. That is totally, unreasonably, fucking absurd.

I could even agree that local zoning boards could fine a facility for repeated refusal to comply with something that was "new" post ADA.

But this guy was targeted. And the amount of money that is wasted for a comment or two from a customer saying "Your mirror in your mens' bathroom gives me a problem combing my hair," would have solved the issue.

"If disabled citizens want special accomadations from private entities in order to patronize them, then a special tax should exist UPON disableds, to pay for it. Just shoving that cost onto businesses and saying "eat the cost or eat the lawsuit" is wrong"

Good point, Robert. We business people could work on making everything accessible if we had the money, but we don't. The most we should be asked to do is have ramps and bathroom accessibility. Even that can be prohibitively expensive for a small business depending on the building. There should be some funds to help businesses pay for this. Most of us are drowning under taxes and regulatory fees as it is.

You know, the public really needs to understand their accountability in the loss of jobs. This kind of stuff shows that the public views all businesses as making a mint, when, in fact, most are struggling.

My taxes doubled this year because of some environmental projects the public desired. As a result, I had to lay 2 people off. There would be a lot more jobs out there if the public realized how these doo-gooder whims are causing businesses to lay employees off or close entirely.

DAMN STRAIGHT lovelysoul.

The problem is most people never had to actually bear the costs of anything.

If they ran a lemonade stand when they were kids, their mother bought them everything to do it.

I've always been a business man by nature, and I faced the problems that come with it. When I was small and started a lemonade stand of my own with my cousin, my parents "sold" me the lemons. True I did not pay store price, but I did an hours worth of chores (so did my cousin) and we bought the materials from my folks, and then we had to charge more to customers to make our money back. We tinkered with our "formula" to maximize our output, changed up prices...basically we were given a crash course in business at a very early age, and those lessons stuck.

Your parents were very wise, Robert. That was a brilliant way to teach the lesson. Today, business is a dirty word.

I fucking Hate our court system and 90% of the scum bag lawyers that work in it.

Shouldn't you hate 100% of the scum bag lawyers and 0% of the non-scum bag ones?

One day God goes looking for Jesus, but he can't be found anywhere. God suspects foul play, so he gets on the phone to Satan, who readily admits that he has kidnapped the messiah.

God sternly threatens Satan with legal action if Jesus is not immediately returned, unharmed, to Heaven.

To which Satan replies, "And where are You going to find a lawyer?"

My favorite one is that so many people think that minimum wage can be raise and everyone makes more money like magic! Actually it is sorta true...but it is more like inflation.

I was talking with a buddy tonight about he is getting run to death at work (a restaurant) because they don't want to take on another employee. His a salaried manager. He compared it to the last time the (state) minimum wage went up...the owner just cut back a little on the hours those people were making (say 32 instead of 35) and made the managers work harder until he could inch the prices up. Now with the recession and people going to McDs for $ menu, they are really hurting - he said one day last week it was him, 1 cook and 1 bartender until the dinner crew came on.

They're some of the wisest people I've ever known lovelysoul. It just took me 20 some years to realize it. Wish I'd known it sooner. *L* I resented them at the time for charging us for the materials other people's parents gave out for free, but before we knew it, we were making more than other kids because we had to think harder about how to make more money. We tinkered with the formula, sold cookies and other snacks with the lemonade, I dare say we were quite the little innovators as children.

Now though, I'm passing those lessons on to my own children. My son and daughter make money by doing chores around the house, but they're both getting a little older, and it is time to start passing on some of that knowledge.

I hate that business has become a dirty word. We wouldn't have computers, ipads, plenty of food, top notch medicine, cars, good homes, unless people who wanted to make money were willing to make the effort to provide those goods and services. Without businesses, we'd have never been much better off than hunter gatherers.

It isn't chemistry, but business, which means the difference between poverty and the abundent life. (Not that I'm no fan of chemistry, it is a means to a better living also, but it too would not provide that benefit, without a profit motive funding it)

---------------

Minimum wage is a complex issue. Henry Ford said that there is one rule for the industrialist: Charge the lowest price possible, for the best goods possible, while paying the highest wages possible.

He was known for his comparatively high wages in his day, if I recall properly, factory workers made $5, an outrageous sum compared to competitors.

But his assembly line allowed the rapid mass production which marketed cross country allowed him to easily cover the cost of his high wages.

But at the same time, high wages minimize the number of employees a company will hire. I've stood in line during lunch at fast food place and seen half the registers unattended because not enough people were hired to work them all even at the busiest time of the day.

This also means lost income to the government since instead of taxing 2 people on their collective $300 earnings that day at a slightly lower wage, they're only taxing one person on his $175 wage that day at the slightly higher pay.

OR, the cost of the wage is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, which reduces the demand for goods and services, which reduces the need for more employees.

The business will do everything it can (rightly) to avoid eating the cost of employment. Raise it TO high, and they'll just fire all their register people and make it a self serve buffet charging bulk prices and paying only a cook and two illegals to clean up. Great job there government.

Isn't it true that each alleged "injured party" who signs on to a class action suit increases the fees to the lawyers? That's my understanding and why I throw all of those notices in the trash. I will NOT be a party to such slimebaggery, even if a few bucks would come my way at the end.