Disability access: statutory damages.

Existing law permits statutory damages to be awarded in certain construction-related accessibility claims against a place of public accommodation only if the violation denied the plaintiff full and equal access to the place of public accommodation on a particular occasion. Existing law reduces a defendant's minimum statutory damage liability to $1000 if the defendant demonstrates that it has corrected all construction-related violations that are the basis of a claim within 60 days of being served with the complaint, and other conditions are met, including, among others, that the structure or area was inspected by a certified access specialist, as defined. Existing law also reduces a defendant's minimum statutory damage liability to $2000 in this context if it demonstrates that it has corrected all construction-related violations that are the basis of a claim within 30 days of being served with the complaint and it is a small business, as defined. This bill would except a small business from statutory damage liability in connection with a construction-related accessibility claim, as described above, and would instead limit recovery to injunctive relief and reasonable attorney's fees as deemed appropriate by the court. The bill would also extend the period for correcting construction-related violations that are the basis of a claim from 60 days to 120 days of being served with the complaint, for purposes of reducing a defendant's minimum statutory damage liability to $1000. The bill would make conforming changes a notice a plaintiff is required to served on a defendant in an action that includes a construction-related accessibility claim.