ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Mike Walters owns the scenic 29-room Ocean Sands Beach Inn. He bought it three years ago and runs it with his son. It’s clean and decorated just as a Florida beachfront inn ought to be, blue patterned carpet, each room tastefully decorated with relaxing beach decor, a welcoming lobby, and a pool.
Mike cares about his customers, giving out directions when asked and wishing patrons a good day as they pass. He cares about his workers, urging them to, “Get a drink of water, sweetheart, you look flushed.” Perhaps most importantly, he cares about his inn. When Mike acquired the inn he said it was on its last legs. He has worked to restore it to a place where people would want to stay and with its own private beach access he says it’s a great quiet place to spend a weekend away.
Mike and his employees go through great lengths to be accommodating to all the people that stay at his inn, which is why he was surprised when a man who did not stay at his inn slapped him with a lawsuit that said his pool was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As a double amputee, Mike said he was both outraged and disgusted.
Howard Cohan, the man suing Walters, has filed over 1,000 ADA lawsuits in past couple years. According to the suit, Cohan is a disabled man himself and works as a “tester,” visiting thousands of hotels and filing federal lawsuits against the hotels that are not compliant with ADA standards.
As for the Ocean Sands Beach Inn’s pool, Walters said that some businesses have to lift and some don’t, according to ADA guidelines, it is still unclear whether his business needs to have one.
What is clear is that the Walters has to settle this suit. He said that his lawyer advised him to settle because it would be too expensive to take the case to trial.
Though he is willing to settle monetarily, Walters is very unsettled at what Cohan is doing.
Walters doesn’t think that the way Cohan approaches his lawsuits is beneficial to the handicapped. “If anything he has actually hurt the disabled. Somebody like that who goes out and files these lawsuits give the truly disabled a bad name.”
Walters says there is a solution to Cohan’s aggressive tactics, “What people with physical disadvantages need to know is you can do this through ADA in Washington and it doesn’t cost you or business owners anything and it gets mediated and settled in court.”
It has been said by Cohan’s representation that he does not receive any monetary compensation for these lawsuits and any money made in settlements or winning the trials go to lawyer fees and expenses. Cohan stands by these lawsuits that they are simply injunctions against establishments to get them to be in accordance with ADA guidelines.