YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
'Dirty Harry' battles trial lawyers
Eastwood takes fight over Disabilities Act to Congress
By Julie Foster � 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Actor Clint Eastwood has begun a lobbying campaign to change the
Americans with Disabilities Act after he was slapped with a
lawsuit demanding $577,000 in attorneys' fees.
Eastwood's 32-room hotel and restaurant, Mission Ranch Hotel, in
Carmel, Calif., needs wider doors and more accessible bathrooms
to meet the requirements of the ADA. But rather than being given
notice that the building did not comply with the law, the actor
was immediately sued.
A former mayor of Carmel, Eastwood has gathered the support of
several lawmakers in Congress for Florida Rep. Mark Foley's
legislation to provide a 90-day compliance period.
Currently, lawyers can charge non-compliant business owners $275
per hour from the day a lawsuit is filed. The disabled, however,
are forbidden from collecting damages under the act.
Eastwood, who is continuing to fight a lawsuit brought by a hotel
guest three years ago, says the legislation would do nothing to
rectify his situation, but it would prevent others from falling
victim to this "form of extortion," he said in a Wall Street
Journal report.
"It's a racket," Eastwood told the Journal. "The typical thing
is to get someone who is disabled in collusion with sleazebag
lawyers, and they file suits."
While the Association of Trial Lawyers of America has not taken
an official position on Foley's legislation, many trial lawyers
reject the need to change the ADA.
Anthony Brady, a lawyer from Camden, N.J., who has sued more than
100 companies for failing ADA compliance, conceded to the Journal
that some "greedy" lawyers prey on small businesses that should
be given additional time to comply without charge. But he
opposes Foley's legislation because it would provide large
corporations the same 90-day waiting period. Escalating legal
fees, he says, is the only weapon the disabled have to force big
companies to accommodate them.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and the
International Council of Shopping Centers have also joined the
lobbying campaign to amend the law.
The ADA was signed into law in July 1990, and is intended to
prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. In
recent years, however, the definition of "disability" has been
disputed.
Courts across the U.S. were being bombarded with cases involving
claims that people were being discriminated against based on
their "disabilities," which ranged from wheelchair-bound amputees
to eyeglass wearers.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the definition as
excluding minor, correctable impairments, such as imperfect
eyesight and high blood pressure.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on
Foley's bill Thursday. Eastwood plans to testify at the hearing.
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Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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