The Business Trial Group of Morgan & Morgan has filed a class action lawsuit in Federal Court against AMTRAK on behalf of the disabled. The suit was filed pursuant to federal regulations under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act for discriminating against people with disabilities and causing irreparable harm.
The case was filed last week in the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York by the ADA-FHA Practice Group of The Business Trial Group of Morgan & Morgan. The group is devoted to protecting the rights of clients who have suffered a loss as a result of discriminatory violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA).
The ADA regulations “expressly prohibit AMTRAK from discriminating against persons with disabilities” and require that “all recipients of federal funding, including AMTRAK, ensure that their facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities”.
The class representative is a resident of Florida who relies on a wheelchair for mobility, as she is unable to stand or walk for more than 3-5 minutes at a time. The Complaint describes in detail some of the struggles, difficulties and pain suffered by the Plaintiff during her travels on AMTRAK between Florida and New York.
“In spite of a 20-year grace period granted to AMTRAK by Congress when it enacted the ADA in 1990, AMTRAK has yet to come into compliance with the ADA,” said attorney David S. Oliver, who heads the ADA-FHA team for the Business Trial Group. This term expired July 26, 2010. The Complaint states that AMTRAK had requested that Congress extend the deadline to September 30, 2015, but in 2009 that extension was denied.
In a report AMTRAK itself filed with Congress on October 27, 2010, “AMTRAK admitted that it failed to comply with the mandate of Congress that 100% of its rail stations be in compliance with the ADA as of July 26, 2010. Instead, it indicated that it hoped to have 100 of the 481 rail stations compliant by year-end 2011″, states the Complaint.
Among other things, the lawsuit demands that AMTRAK comply with requirements of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act to remove existing architectural barriers to individuals with disabilities and that its facilities be readily accessible to and useable by individuals with disabilities.
AMTRAK has 482 passenger stations in the U.S. which are subject to these federal regulations.
About Morgan and Morgan
Morgan and Morgan is one of the largest plaintiff’s law firms in the country with multiple office locations throughout Florida and the Southeast. The Business Trial Group, now consisting of 13 lawyers, six staff attorneys and 21 support staff, represents clients who have suffered losses in a wide variety of business disputes involving corporations, securities and investments, contracts, real estate and mortgages, commercial fraud and intellectual property, as well as clients who have suffered losses as a result of discriminatory practices. For more information, please visit
http://www.businesstrialgroup.com/ today.
