ADA lawsuits against Gainesville business owners
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, March 9, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you.
Lillian:A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experience. Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. Cremations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care.
Lillian:Here's the top headlines we're rounding up. The Florida House of Representatives passed a utility bill with an amendment that could make the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority permanent. Local representative Yvonne Hayes Hinson argued against the amendment along with Democratic colleagues.
Lillian:An Alachua County staff report outlines how the commission could partner to pay off $30,000,000 in local medical debt. The debt was already purchased by a nonprofit with plans to forgive the payments for 31,000 residents.
Lillian:The school board of Alachua County made further revisions to its zoning plans, leaving two elementary schools on the chopping block. Board members remain divided on how or whether to rezone ahead of an expected final vote on Thursday.
Lillian:The city of Gainesville considered giving $55,000 in aid to Heartwood Soundstage. The music venue recently switched to nonprofit status and is trying to get rid of lingering debt. As always, visit mainstreetdailynews.com for more details on our stories. Thanks to our generous members. This news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.
Lillian:Thanks again for listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman, and I'll be talking with Seth Johnson about one big story we had this week.
Seth:Yeah. It's one story with a lot of dough involved, both money and pizza dough.
Lillian:That's right. On Monday, we sat down with Satchel Raye from Satchel's Pizza here in Gainesville. And two days later, a big story broke.
Seth:And it's actually a story we've been tracking since December. We did a story in kinda mid December after a couple weeks of research, and it quickly became the number one story on our site for all of 2025. And it's the story about 43 businesses here in Alachua County that were sued because their websites weren't ADA compliant. In ADA, there is the Americans with Disabilities Act. And that act says that websites are a public accommodation and they need to be accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired and use screen reading softwares.
Seth:Those lawsuits were against some very well known businesses here in Gainesville, not just Satchel's Pizza, but also Spurrier's Gridiron Grill, Gainesville Health and Fitness, The Top, Harry's Seafood Bar and Grill, David's Barbecue, and a lot of others.
Lillian:These lawsuits have been filed a couple of times a month over the last fourteen months, but nobody was really aware that they were going on.
Seth:Yeah. I think because a lot of these settlements that came out of these lawsuits had nondisclosure agreements attached to them, owners didn't really wanna talk about them and probably just wanted to move on with their work after having to pay out settlements if that's how their case ended, and that is how the majority of the cases ended.
Lillian:But when Satchel found out, he was very quick to reach out to Mainstreet. I was driving back from covering a commission meeting in Alachua one night, and I got a phone call from Satchel. And he told me about how he had just been served with a lawsuit saying that his restaurant's website was not ADA compliant. He immediately, within twenty four hours, reached out to his IT guy, and they fixed it, made all the changes that this person was saying, you know, was wrong with his website, but he was still served with the lawsuit. From that moment in November when he was sued, he has not stopped fighting it.
Seth:Yeah. Satchel was a big part of our story in December. We also spoke with the lawyer for the plaintiff who is suing all of these businesses. We also spoke to a local lawyer who has represented a lot of these businesses. And a lot of the business owners and this lawyer said it's kind of seems like a bit of a scam.
Seth:Seems like at least not a proper way to do business. There you should have notices ahead of time to let people know their websites aren't ADA compliant and then come in and sue if necessary. Lots of different opinions on that and you can go back and read our story from December. However, we kinda wanna just reach back out with Satchel and see how the litigation was going because Satchel said he was not going to pay a settlement. He would take it all the way to a non jury trial.
Seth:This type of case gets decided by a judge, and he didn't care if he had to pay more in the end. He didn't wanna have to pay a settlement because he didn't think it was right. And a lot of these cases have settled or or dismissed for some other reasons. It made Satchel's case a bit unique.
Lillian:Fast forwarding to last week, we spoke with Satchel on Monday just to get that update, see where things were at. And he was planning to continue fighting the suit through October, end of this year, you know, thousands of more dollars that he was willing to put into it. But he said the only way he would pay her was if a judge told him to.
Seth:And like Lillian mentioned, since he got served in November, he hasn't stopped kinda looking into the issue, reaching out to people on the issue. It's taken up a lot of his time and, you know, his employees at Satchel's Pizza kind of go about their work. But every customer that comes in and wants to talk with staff, wants to talk with him about this lawsuit, wherever he goes in Gainesville, people are wanting to talk about it. And we asked him last week, you know, is it worth it?
Satchel Raye:No. It's not. It's it's just a matter of what's right and wrong. Like, don't want to spend my life doing this. You know how much time I spend?
Satchel Raye:Every day of my life I spend on this thing and I have a good life. This is not what I want to be doing. Is it worth it? No. But it's just like it's like you give in to the extortion, and then you go on with your life.
Satchel Raye:That's why they do it. It's not worth it at all. But you do it because you're like, I just I have morals.
Lillian:And we both have an email from Satchel pop up that says, she dropped the case. We won this one, y'all.
Seth:Yeah. Lillian kind turned to me over the cubicle and was like, Seth, have you checked your email? As soon as that email came in and quickly, got on the phone with Satchel to talk about the case getting dismissed, actually, the plaintiff dropping the case, and it was dismissed with prejudice, meaning she can't bring the same complaint against Satchel's Pizza and wanted to get that story out and did. And it really took off showing people are so very interested in these ADA lawsuits that are happening.
Lillian:But Satchel said the fight still isn't over for him with all of this. He wants to continue educating, you know, different business owners on these types of lawsuits and plans to meet with Representative Kat Cammack again.
Seth:Yeah. Obviously, Satchel knows a lot of the other business owners in the Gainesville community that were also involved with these lawsuits. He said a big part of it was getting his website in compliance. He wants it to be available for all potential customers and they did. But since they got it compliant, you know, then the lawsuit shouldn't be able to come on top of that.
Seth:And businesses, he said, should get noticed before they get sued. But a couple other local businesses are still dealing with this. Of those 43, now I think 44 local businesses, the majority of those cases aren't active anymore. They've been settled in some way. However, there are eight active local lawsuits still, but five of them have already signed kind of tentative settlement agreements.
Seth:Only in Gainesville Health and Fitness, BBQ Chicken, and The Top are active without any notice of settlements. And that same plaintiff, Makeda Evans, who filed these lawsuits also filed two others in February, but they're against businesses in Colorado, so it's not really a Gainesville tie. It is neat to know though that January, just two months ago, was the first month in, I think, fifteen or sixteen months where no local ADA lawsuits were filed against Gainesville businesses. And we'll see what the next couple months look like as we continue to track this type of story.
Lillian:Before we get to our news, forecast, and events segment of the podcast, we're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, Forest Meadows.
Sponsor:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass front niches, or plan ahead for cremation, funerals, and memorials at our Funeral Home or Tribute Center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows where compassion meets experience and every life is honored with care.
Seth:Now for this week's news forecast.
Seth:Alachua County and the city of Gainesville will combine for a joint meeting today. The two commissions will discuss literacy initiatives and the school board's rezoning plans.
Seth:The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority will meet on Tuesday with a contract about storm water billing on the agenda.
Seth:Rural city commissions are also ramping up this week. Alachua, Newberry, Archer, and High Springs are all on deck. Alachua will give an update on the Hathcock Center inspections. High Springs will discuss referendums for its November as Archer makes a proclamation for the late Roberto Lopez.
Seth:And then on Thursday, the school board of Alachua County will have a big meeting. It's scheduled to finalize its rezoning plans. That meeting will start at 6PM.
Lillian:Now for our events segment covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend.
Lillian:Want to paint nature in nature? A plein air painting will take place at the bar Hammock Preserve, Levy Loop on Sunday. Some materials will be provided, but artists are encouraged to bring their own supplies and chair.
Lillian:The Santa Fe singers and Barbara Gators are making melodies together during the Sing Into Spring concert on Friday. The showcase will take place at the Jackson Sasser Fine Arts Hall.
Lillian:The city of Waldo will host its second annual plant festival on Saturday. It'll feature a wide variety of plants, flowers, flowers, and garden goodies from local vendors. The festival is free, runs from 9AM until 2PM, and is at the Waldo City Square.
Lillian:Finally, the Briar Patch in Newberry will hold its annual Strawberry Festival on Saturday. The event will include farm activities and buckets of sweet strawberries to pick.
Seth:As journalists, we don't just stay in the office all day at a laptop screen. Lillian and I were actually in Jacksonville for the Gate River Run 15K on Saturday.
Lillian:Not reporting on it, running it.
Seth:We gotta stay fit as journalists and keep chasing those stories, but we were aware it is really getting into that Florida heat with the spring. And that was very clear in Jacksonville on Saturday, and that drought is still going on here locally and really across the state.
Lillian:Yeah. We're still in a statewide emergency with this drought, which brings a lot of risk for wildfires. We had two special guests in the studio to help us make a bonus episode talking about the wildfires, what we can do to prevent them, and where to get more information. We'll be bringing that to you this week.
Seth:Which means you need to subscribe to the StreetSmart Podcast so you get notified when we drop a bonus episode.
Lillian:That's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart Podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members. Another special thanks to Forrest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring us.
Lillian:We'll be back next week to round up more local news that matters to you. Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work. And remember, you can click on the link in the show notes to find more free local news at MainstreetDailyNews.com or pick up a print copy around Alachua County.
Lillian:Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville band Now Leaving Space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.
