Disability access: statutory damages: small businesses: certified access specialist's report: violations.

Existing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of various specified personal characteristics, including disability. Existing law imposes minimum statutory damages for construction-related accessibility claims if the violation of a construction-related accessibility standard denied the plaintiff full and equal access to the place of public accommodation on a particular occasion, including by causing difficulty, discomfort, or embarrassment. Existing law provides that a business is not liable for minimum statutory damages in a construction-related accessibility claim, with respect to a violation noted in a report by a certified access specialist, if, among other requirements, the business has employed 50 or fewer employees on average over the past 3 years, or for the years it has been in existence if less than 3 years, and has corrected all of the construction-related violations in the structure or area inspected that are the basis of the claim within 120 days of the date of the inspection. This bill would revise the average number of employees for a business to qualify for this exemption from 50 to 100.