The Disability Rights Legal Center today filed separate lawsuits against Time Warner Entertainment’s Conan and Warner Bros Television Distribution’s Dr Drew’s Lifechangers claiming that the shows failed to accommodate an audience member in a wheelchair. In the suits filed today in Los Angeles, plaintiff Emmanuel Ramirez said he was denied access to both tapings last year, with Lifechangers refusing him tickets outright because the show’s Glendale, CA-based Victory Studios “isn’t wheelchair accessible”, according to the suit. Conan tapes at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank. The lawsuits (read them here and here) assert claims under the Americans With Disabilities Act and related California civil rights laws, and seek policy changes, the removal of barriers, and damages “so that Mr. Ramirez and other people with disabilities can have the opportunity to participate in television show audiences”, the DRLC said today. Warner Bros had no official comment.


Damages? It should only serve to have them supply access, NOT come out ahead financially.
What damages serve is to make a corporation think twice. Otherwise, they can just shrug and say it’s cheaper to risk being sued than to to comply with the ADA.
The real issue is when attorneys and claimants place multiple suits as a way to make money.
If you read the details of the suit, he is requesting for reimbursement of legal fees, curt costs, and anything the court deems “fit”.
It DOES NOT say he is looking to come out ahead financially
The goal is to make the facility accessible and not to reward the attorneys and claimants who make a living out of going after deep pockets.
You award damages not to reward the wronged but to punish the wrong doers, and to warn those who also might do wrong. If the worse that would happen would be you are forced to abide by the law, then why abide by the law until forced? It would create a social system that needed CONSTANT enforcement.
Same reason there is a $250,000 fine to upload a pirated movie you could buy for $9.99 at WalMart.
s
Man you Americans love to sue.
Yes, yes we do.
[BEGIN COUNTDOWN TO LAWSUIT FROM DISNEY]
They should be pressuring them for access. It is against the law.
This fella should have an overweight woman in a wheelchair attempt to get on Sundance Channel’s “Push Girls” and then sue for discrimination. Money in the bank.
Ha. So true. But I’m in a wheelchair and I recently saw Conan’s show in Burbank. In fact, it was set-up by Conan. He gave me his assistant’s number who graciously gave me tickets and organized the visit. In my experience, I thought Warner Brothers had a really nice set-up for wheelchair people.
Packs of shamelessness lawyers team up with professional handicapped complainants and roam the California landscape suing small business owners for minor ADA infractions, and they do so with impunity. They file $10k nuisance claims against small business owners who can’t afford to litigate these frivolous cases. Owners either pony up the 10k extortion payment or shutter. Many choose to shutter, and then simply leave California.
This abusive form of organized law-fare has continued unabated for more than 20 years. Codified shakedowns of legitimate businesses.
*shameless
I completely agree with ADA and all it requires, but did anybody read this lawsuit? It seems a little far-fetched at some points.
I’ve been to a taping of “Conan,” and I don’t recall getting a ride in any “transportation vehicle” from the Parking Structure to the Stage. In fact, it was pouring rain, and we all had to walk. Plus, the Warner Bros. Lot does not have any “busy streets” as far as I can remember. Also, he refused to use the lift that they provided.
side note: He claims to be a fan of “Conan O’Brian.” I guess in his anger, he forgot how to spell.