News Release

Report finds low filing rate for lawsuits, lack
of attorneys for plaintiffs lessen ADA effectiveness

CHAPEL HILL -- Despite enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, low rates of filing lawsuits and lack of legal representation of plaintiffs could mean many individuals with disabilities aren’t receiving protection from discrimination, according to a recent study.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and several other universities looked at more than 4,000 federal district court ADA employment discrimination lawsuits, finding that only 13.8 percent of claims eligible to be filed in federal court were actually filed. This contradicts a prevailing notion that the ADA has spawned a huge number of employment discrimination lawsuits, the researchers said.

This report is the first national study of the prevalence and outcomes of ADA employment discrimination lawsuits in the federal courts, the researchers said.

Of those who did file a lawsuit, up to 62 percent received beneficial outcomes – most of them by settling out of court. This contradicts the prevailing notion that lawsuits filed under the employment provisions of the ADA are favoring employers, but not individuals with disabilities, the authors said.

The report appears in the May-June edition of the Mental & Physical Disability Law Reporter.

Authors are Dr. Kathryn Moss, who directs disability research at UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research; Scott Burris, a professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and associate director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown universities; Dr. Jeffrey W. Swanson, an associate professor in Duke University Medical Center’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Michael Ullman, a former research associate at UNC’s Sheps Center; and Dr. Leah Ranney, a research associate at the Sheps Center.

Most of the limited research on ADA lawsuits focuses on published case decisions, which results in misleading information, said Moss, who is the study’s principal investigator.

"Published case decisions are only the tip of the iceberg," she added. "Only a small percentage of cases are decided by judicial opinion or jury verdict."

Individuals with disabilities who were eligible to file an ADA employment discrimination lawsuit were much more likely to file if they had an attorney, the researchers said.

Moreover, the proportion of cases settled or decided in favor of the plaintiff was three times higher than the proportion of cases involving plaintiffs who did not have a lawyer (about 68 percent versus 23 percent), the study found.

Thus, the connection between retaining an attorney and benefiting under the ADA is a strong one, the researchers said.

Previous studies of ADA cases have painted a bleak picture regarding the success a person with a disability may have under the law, because they did not include cases that settled out of court, the researchers said.

"Settlements are an important source of benefits to plaintiffs, and this means that the ADA does provide help to people with disabilities who have suffered discrimination," Burris said. "We should also not underestimate the extent to which employers obey the law without being sued, either because they believe that discrimination is wrong or they are afraid of being sued."

A widespread assumption about the ADA is that its biggest challenge is the narrowing of the law by the Supreme Court. However, the authors said, another problem is just as critical: the availability of civil legal services for people with disabilities in the United States. If many of those who do not file claims are actually victims of discrimination, then the need for legal assistance cannot be emphasized enough.

The study concluded that low rates of lawsuits can be attributed to other causes, as well: People with disabilities are most likely reluctant to file lawsuits because the length of time required to do so is usually considerable and the chance for success is portrayed as extremely negative.

However, the reluctance of lawyers to handle ADA employment discrimination cases and the inability of most people with disabilities to afford lawyers is a major stumbling block, Moss said.

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Note: Contact Moss at (919) 966-0601 or moss@mail.schsr.unc. Contact Burris at (610) 864-8764 or burris@temple.edu.

UNC News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu