Senator Roger Niello

If you want to understand why California's Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit crisis has gone on so long without a fix, look no further than your own backyard. For years, one of the state's most prolific serial lawsuit filers operated his litigation empire out of a home office in Carmichael.

Scott Johnson, a quadriplegic attorney who eventually pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion, filed thousands of ADA lawsuits across the state – naming himself as the plaintiff and collecting over $1.3 million in 2013 lawsuit settlements alone. Johnson’s targeting of Fair Oaks Boulevard and the Sacramento corridor became so aggressive that a local Carmichael attorney felt compelled to issue a public warning to businesses in the area.

Johnson is a known name now, but the business model he pioneered is still being utilized daily in Carmichael the Sacramento region and across the state.

Serial ADA litigation has morphed from a few nefarious actors focused on lawsuit profiteering to what has now become a multi-million-dollar litigation mechanism in California. Sacramento-area small businesses remain prime targets.

California small businesses have no recourse when it comes to battling ADA suits. That’s why Senator Roger Niello’s Senate Bill 84 is our best answer and is long overdue.

Senate Bill 84 will give small businesses 120 days to fix the problem after receiving notice before a lawsuit can proceed. If the business fails to act, full legal recourse remains available. The only thing SB 84 eliminates is the financial incentive to sue before a business has a chance to comply.

Recently, it was reported that a single plaintiff has filed 47 lawsuits against Sacramento businesses in three years. These lawsuits targeted restaurants, local cafes, and neighborhood shops for minor technical violations that could have been fixed and resolved quickly had anyone simply notified the owners of these issues. The pattern is always the same: file first, notify never, settle for thousands.

Victor Gomez

California filed the most ADA lawsuits in the country for the second consecutive year in 2025 – with cases targeting bathroom mirrors hung ¼ inch too high, wrongly shaped handicap signs, and websites image descriptions. The average ADA settlement runs $14,000, and litigation costs can reach into the hundreds of thousands.

This is a tax on every neighborhood in California. The Perryman Group's economic analysis for Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse found that lawsuit abuse costs every Californian $2,567 per year through higher prices and reduced wages and contributes to the loss of more than 850,000 jobs statewide. When a family restaurant in Carmichael our neighborhood settles a shakedown suit for $12,000 rather than risk $100,000 in legal fees, that money doesn't come back. And many times, the restaurant doesn't either.

ADA lawsuit reform legislation, like SB 84, is not about limiting protections for individuals with disabilities. SB 84 is a bill that would ensure the law works as intended for all Californians. SB 84 would give businesses a chance to come into compliance while preserving full legal recourse for those who need accessibility standards in place.

In 2025, SB 84 cleared the Senate floor with a resounding 34-2 vote. This outcome is a very rare display of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle coming together to work towards a solution. However, the bill sits idle, waiting for a hearing to be scheduled in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. In a state that ranked dead last in Chief Executive Magazine's Best and Worst States for Business 2025, that’s not neutrality. It is a choice to protect a broken system that only benefits plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Californians are not the only Americans plagued with the pitfalls of lawsuit abuse. Others across the country are faced with the same ADA abuse challenges. Missouri is another prime example, like California, of bearing the brunt of this legal abuse. The main difference between our state and the Show-Me state: Missouri lawmakers just took action. The House recently voted unanimously to pass their own ADA reform bill and send it to the governor’s desk for signature. Missouri lawmakers are working to protect their constituents from lawsuit abuse while preserving meaningful disability access. We need to make sure we’re doing the same in California.

Carmichael Sacramento-area small business owners and Sacramento families pay the hidden costs of lawsuit abuse on every receipt. We are asking the Assembly Judiciary Committee to hear this bill and asking our neighbors to make that demand heard.

The ADA was written to open doors. It's time to stop letting trial lawyers use it to close them.

Senator Roger Niello represents California's 6th Senate District, covering portions of Placer and Sacramento counties. Victor Gomez is Executive Director of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.