by Lisa Rickard & Hector Barreto

Americans often think of lawsuit abuse as a problem associated with larger businesses.  But small businesses bear a large portion of the lawsuit burden in the United States.

According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses create 64% of new jobs in America, and yet, frivolous lawsuits cost small businesses collectively over $100 billion in 2008. That seems a heavy burden on a sector that needs to thrive in order to revive this fragile economy.

Which makes the impact of lawsuits on Latino small businesses all the more troubling.

For many in the Latino community, entrepreneurship is the gateway to achieving the American dream. According to the U.S. Census, Latinos in this country are three times more likely to start a small business than the overall population.

But abusive litigation against these small businesses threatens their business and their very economic future. A survey of small business owners taken since the economic downturn showed that overall, 92% said the poor economy has made it more difficult for their company to absorb the costs associated with lawsuits. And more than two-thirds of small businesses said that if targeted by a lawsuit, they would likely be forced to hold back on hiring, reduce employee benefits and pass costs onto consumers.

Yet lawsuits against these vital businesses continue even through the troubled economic times in places like California. Latino small businesses in the Golden State have been targeted by unscrupulous lawyers filing abusive lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs seeking to gain as much money from them as possible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  And Latino business owners can be especially vulnerable to these lawsuits due to a language barrier and some Latino business owners’ unfamiliarity with the U.S. civil justice system.

For that reason, the Institute for Legal Reform has launched a public education campaign – the first of its kind – specifically targeted towards Latino businesses in the US.  The national campaign consists of paid media on Spanish language Television, Spanish language radio, and on-line advertising, underscoring the vulnerabilities that exist for Latino businesses.  The campaign urges Latino business owners to visit the Spanish-language version of the website www.facesoflawsuitabuse.com which is www.abusodedemandas.org, to learn more about these stories of lawsuit abuse and how others have dealt with this problem.

Partnering with groups such as the Latino Coalition and the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), ILR will help educate Latino entrepreneurs and businessmen and women about the impact of lawsuit abuse through a public education and awareness campaign by highlighting the stories of Latino business owners who have been the targets of lawsuit abuse.  The campaign was launched just last month.

Violations of the ADA are very serious indeed and no one disagrees that action should be taken to correct problems.  But serious questions arise when lawyers and plaintiffs claim they are standing up for the rights of disabled people everywhere, yet the record shows a relative few have become wealthy by filling their own coffers from such lawsuits.

Take for example the case of Jaime Del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu, owners of a small Mexican restaurant, La Casita Mexicana, near Los Angeles, whose story is featured in the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign.  The two chefs/entrepreneurs became victims of a frivolous lawsuit in 2007 after they were sued for allegedly violating the ADA.

But as it turns out, the plaintiff, a wheelchair-bound serial complainant, who claimed, incorrectly, that the mirror in La Casita Mexicana’s restroom was too high for him, had never even been inside the establishment on the date in question. Jamie and Ramiro were able to prove this after reviewing videotape of the day the alleged incident took place. The lawsuit was then dropped, but several other lawsuits by the same plaintiff against other area restaurants moved forward.

In another case, Roberto Guerrero, an owner in the family-run Cumaica Coffee in San Francisco, Calif., was sued under the ADA Act for nearly $90,000 over minor technical violations, which he had corrected after an initial complaint. The plaintiff had targeted over 144 small businesses in his neighborhood.  The lawyer in the case, who has faced disciplinary action by the California bar in the past, said publicly he has “probably” filed 2,000 similar lawsuits under the ADA.  Roberto, unwilling to spend years and tens of thousands of dollars defending himself, did what most businesses do: he settled the lawsuit after a year of litigation.

Cases such as these have helped to put California at a lowly 46th in the ILR’s Harris survey ranking of state legal climates. California’s Unruh Act may explain why it has far more ADA suits filed than any other state.

This law allows plaintiffs to seek monetary damages (as opposed to just injunctive relief) of up to $4,000 for each and every ADA violation, which has in essence created the perfect breeding ground for frivolous lawsuits over minor violations.

According to the online Justia database, 5,590 non-employment ADA suits have been filed in federal courts in California since the beginning of 2005, as opposed to 378 in Texas, 770 in New York, 1,580 in Florida, 129 in Illinois and 330 in Pennsylvania over the same time period.

This matters to California’s Latino-owned small businesses because Latinos make up about 37% of the state’s overall population, increasing the pool of targets – and the economic impact to the state overall.

The Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign aims first to bring awareness to the Latino population so that these business owners can be prepared and on the lookout to ensure that they will not easily fall prey to these abusive lawsuits.

As leaders in both the U.S. business community generally, and in the Latino business community specifically, we understand that Latino small businesses play a crucial role in turning around the country’s economic fortunes. And the real problems of abusive lawsuits against Latinos are not just seen in statistics, but in the faces of those who daily confront the damage these lawsuits can do to this important community.

Lisa A. Rickard is the President of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.  Hector Barreto is Chairman of the Latino Coalition and former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Comedian Jay Leno is being sued over a joke he told on his late night show where he called an opulent Sikh shrine “Mitt Romney’s summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee.”  The joke, intended as a riff on Romney’s wealth, instead offended an Indian-American doctor who complained in his suit that  Leno “falsely portray[ed] the holiest place in the Sikh religion as a vacation resort owned by a non-Sikh.”

A former New York inmate who tipped the scales at 400 lbs. is suing the Corrections Department, saying he was forced to wear the street clothes he was arrested in because the prison didn’t have any jumpsuits in his size.  He adds that the ordeal was humiliating and will require expensive therapy to correct.  His suit is seeking $1 million.

A Florida man who pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter after he caused an accident that killed 3 others is now suing the family of one of the people he killed.  The plaintiff, who had drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of the crash, says the accident wasn’t his fault, although the police report says he rammed his car into the back of the victims’ car while they were stopped at a red light.

A lawyer that boasted of his “superior legal mind” apparently isn’t the litigator he thought himself to be.  A New York judge dismissed his wrongful termination suit and, to add insult to injury, is considering filing contempt charges after he walked out of the courtroom in the middle of the judge’s instructions.

Members of The Velvet Underground are suing the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, the group that manages the work of the late artist.  The band says the foundation improperly licensed a picture that the band used on an album cover years before, claiming that they have earned trademark rights after years of association with the artwork.

An Illinois woman is suing her church, saying she was knocked unconscious when another parishioner fell on top of her during a lively service.

A group that was denied a parade permit after it refused to pay a standard filing fee sued the city.  A federal judge recently dismissed the case, saying it is not the federal judiciary’s job to overrule a reasonable and sufficient local statute.

Competing securities lawyers who want to sue a company for a dip in its stock prices are fighting each other over who should be allowed to represent the class.  Once that’s settled, whichever firm won out will then have to find a way to overcome the fact that the stock since tripled in value.

An actress who anonymously sued IMDb for revealing her age has refilled her suit under her own name.  The actress says IMDb ruined her career by publishing her age, saying that “lesser-known 40-year-old actresses are not in demand in the movie business.”

A suit from a Texas woman who claimed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after biting into a metal object while eating at a restaurant has been tossed by a judge.

A teenager who suffered permanent nerve damage when he ingested stolen Xanax will receive $4.1 million to settle his suit against the pharmacy the drugs were stolen from, the host of the party where he overdosed, and other guests at the party.

A New Jersey man who is serving a life sentence sued the Department of Corrections when they didn’t alter his diet after he underwent mouth surgery.  A judge ruled the prisoner, who was convicted of carjacking and murdering a woman in 1997, hadn’t followed the appeals process and therefore wasn’t able to sue.

An actress that is suing the internet database for revealing her true age is now faced with a dilemma – either drop the suit or refile the case in her own name (instead of Jane Doe).

The U.S. has been the undisputed lawsuit capital of the world for some time.  And while the courts play a central role in resolving disputes and maintaining a civil society, that function isn’t easy when they are packed with frivolous suits. 

Ridiculous lawsuits clog up our legal system’s dwindling resources, taking time away from legitimate grievances to devote to the vindictive, the hypocritical, the irresponsible, and the outright absurd. 

With that in mind, FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org has compiled some of the most egregious examples of frivolous and abusive litigation from around the country and asked you to tell us which ones were the most ridiculous. These suits range from the comical and absurd to the disturbing, but they all underscore a real problem – lawsuits hurt businesses, families, and everyday Americans through lost time, money and job growth.  

So which lawsuits are the doozies this past year? First, here’s the lawsuit that you thought was the most ridiculous:

• Convict sues couple he kidnapped for not helping him evade police. A man who kidnapped a couple at knifepoint while he was running from the police is now suing the victims, claiming that they promised to hide him in exchange for an unspecified amount of money.  The plaintiff, currently in jail, is seeking $235,000 for the alleged “breach of contract.” 

And here’s the rest of the top ten as determined by you who voted at FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org:

• Man suing for age discrimination says judge in his case is too old. A 60-year-old musician who is suing for age discrimination wants the judge removed from the case – because he’s too old.  Ironically, the plaintiff says his fight against age-based discrimination is too important to leave in the hands of the 88-year-old judge.
• Young adults sue mother for sending cards without gifts and playing favorites. The plaintiffs, now 20 and 23, claimed the mother “sometimes didn’t include gifts in cards sent to her children; played favorites with her children . . . did not send care packages until his sixth semester away at college . . . changed her surname, thus ‘causing attention’ at her daughter’s school events; and refused to buy her a homecoming dress.”
• Obese man sues burger joint over tight squeeze in booths. A nearly-300 pound man is suing White Castle restaurants, saying that their booths are too tight to accommodate someone of his size.  In fact, he’s so distraught by the booths that he hasn’t been to White Castle in months (instead, he sends his wife to pick up his burgers so he can eat them at home).
• Woman sues over movie trailer; says not enough driving in ‘Drive’. A Michigan woman who claims she was misled by the trailers for the movie ‘Drive’ is suing the distributors of the film.  She says she was disappointed by the lack of driving in the film and was expecting something more similar to the ‘Fast and Furious’ films.
• Mom files suit against exclusive preschool over child’s college prospects. A New Yorker is suing a private preschool, saying the school’s curriculum has seriously hurt her 4-year-old’s chances of getting into an Ivy League college.
• Man sues bar for not disarming him before he started drinking (and fighting). A Pennsylvania man illegally brought a gun into a bar, then got injured in a drunken shootout with another patron, and now has sued the bar for not searching him for a weapon on his way in.
• Passenger’s lawsuit says cruise ship was too fast. An Indiana woman is suing Carnival Cruise Line, claiming she got sick because the boat was going too fast and was swaying from side to side.
• Woman disagrees with store over 80¢ refund, sues for $5m. A New York woman decided to make a $5 million federal case out of a disagreement over 80¢.  Her suit says she used a $5-off coupon when she purchased a bevy of items for over $100.  When she returned one of the items, the store pro-rated the refund to account for the discount.
• Mother sues Chuck E. Cheese – says games encourage gambling in children. A California woman has filed a lawsuit against Chuck E. Cheese on the grounds that their games are actually an illegal form of gambling and could get kids hooked. She is seeking at least $5 million; the restaurant says the games are legal and has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.  And while we can’t predict everything 2012 has in store, it’s a good bet there’ll be more ridiculous lawsuits. So remember to visit FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org monthly to vote for your favorite ridiculous lawsuits.

The writer filed a $2.5 billion lawsuit against the maker of the science fiction film, saying that he originally came up with the idea for a movie with “bioluminescent flora/plant life, unbreathable atmospheres, matriarch support of hero vs. heroine, spiritual connections to environment and reincarnation, appearance of mist in scene, sunlight to moonlight, crackling from gargantuan foliage, blue skin/green skin and battle scene on limbs/branches.”

A PlayStation user is suing Sony over a provision in the user agreement that requires any disputes to be resolved in arbitration instead of court.

An Illinois man who says he hurt his tooth while eating a peanut butter sandwich is suing the maker of the peanut butter and the store where he purchased it.

A federal judge has allowed a suit against Facebook to move forward.  The suit claims that Facebook’s “like” ads (that tell you when a friend “likes” a page, product, company) violate California’s publicity statute.

What could make a judge wax poetic about “misty watercolor memories” and “scattered pictures of the smiles . . . left behind?”  A lawsuit over a wedding.  Or rather, a lawsuit to recreate a wedding. 

A groom who tied the knot eight years ago decided that he was unhappy with the pictures and videos of his big day and is suing the photographer that he hired.  In addition to a full refund for the photos, the groom wants $48,000 more so he can fly in family and friends to recreate the entire wedding.  That might be easier said than done, considering that he and his wife have since divorced, and she returned to her native Latvia.  The erstwhile groom’s suit is one of the nominees in this month’s Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Month poll.  The others:

Here’s a riddle: Say a group of three liquored-up friends steal a car, go for a drunken joyride, then get hurt when they inevitably crash the car.  Who gets sued?  The car’s 91-year-old owner, who was on vacation at the time of the theft.  The plaintiffs, who were passengers in the stolen car, say the thief was hired to do occasional odd jobs for the defendant and should thus be considered an employee the night of the crash.  Despite the fact that the thief was convicted of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, among other charges, the plaintiffs still think the car’s owner should be held liable for their injuries.

Another nominee is taking Playboy to court over the company’s alleged favoritism towards women.  Apparently, the plaintiff paid $1,000 to get into a “Leathers Meets Lace” party at the legendary Playboy Mansion, while “gorgeous ladies” were let in for free.  The plaintiff calls the practice discriminatory (similar suits against Ladies Night promotions have been dismissed).

A couple that was held at knifepoint by a fugitive while he was running from the police is being victimized by their attacker again – in court.  The kidnapper, currently serving a 10-year sentence, says that the couple fed him and watched movies with him to put him at ease.  He says he offered them a undisclosed amount of money if they would help him escape.  Eventually he was caught by the authorities, which he claims breached the “contract” he made with his victims.  The convict/plaintiff is suing the couple for $235,000.

And last but not least, a New York lawyer is suing his health club after the club stopped offering complimentary breakfasts to members.  The lawyer wants $230,000 in damages for the missed meals, plus an additional $500,000 for what he says was a “libelous comment” from a club employee.

So which of these suits in the most ridiculous?  You can vote for your favorite at FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org.  In case you missed it, here’s the winner from last month:  the Michigan woman who sued the makers of the movie ‘Drive,’ saying she was deceived by the trailers into thinking the movie would be more like the ‘Fast and the Furious’films.

Be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Year poll, which will feature some of the most egregious lawsuits from 2011.  And visit FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org regularly throughout the new year for even more examples of ridiculous plaintiffs bringing ridiculous suits.