ADA Website Lawsuit – Chances of Winning & Proven Strategies

Nowadays, ADA lawsuits are often exploited by serial plaintiffs and law firms looking for easy money. If you’ve been hit with an ADA website lawsuit, know that you can fight it and win.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to spot a lawsuit that doesn’t hold up and how to defend your website the right way. We’ll walk you through real strategies that have helped others win.

How to defend and win an ADA website lawsuit

The most effective way to fight and win an ADA website lawsuit is to prove that it wasn’t filed in good faith. In other words, show the court that the person suing you had no real interest in using your site; they were just in it for the payout.

This strategy has led to dismissals in several cases.

One is Yugely Nunez v. Beardbrand, LLC, where the plaintiff never contacted the business before suing, a sign of bad faith. Another is Gomez v. Tribecca, Inc., where the court dismissed the case after finding no genuine intent to use the site, which made the claim lack credibility.

Now, let’s look at how you can prove bad faith when you’re targeted by a serial plaintiff or lawsuit mill.

1. Check your customer support history

• Go through emails, contact forms, chat logs, and phone records.
• Look for any message from the plaintiff before the lawsuit.

Courts generally expect plaintiffs to raise accessibility concerns with a business before filing a lawsuit.

A simple email, support ticket, or contact form submission shows a good-faith effort to resolve the issue. If the plaintiff skipped that and went straight to court, it signals they were more interested in suing than solving, and that can seriously weaken their case.

2. Review the complaint for red flags

• Is the language vague or copy-pasted?
• Do they mention specific barriers on your site?
• Or is it just “fails to comply with WCAG”?

Courts look for a “concrete injury,” not just a general claim of non-compliance.

If the complaint doesn’t explain what the plaintiff was trying to do, like make a purchase, book a service, or read something specific, it suggests they never actually used your site. Without a real task being blocked, the case starts to look more like a legal ambush than a genuine accessibility issue.

3. Look up their lawsuit history

Google the plaintiff’s name and the law firm representing them. Check court databases.

• Have they sued other businesses for the same thing?
• Do the complaints look identical?

Courts are increasingly sceptical of repeat plaintiffs who file boilerplate lawsuits.

If the same person and law firm are suing business after business with copy-paste claims, it starts to look like a settlement mill, not a genuine accessibility effort. Judges are more likely to question their intent and toss the case for lack of standing.

4. Use your accessibility efforts as evidence

• Do you already have an accessibility statement on your site?
• Have you made improvements or run audits recently?
• Do you have records of fixes (dates, pages, issues resolved)?

Courts look favorably on businesses that show good faith, even if their site isn’t perfect.

If you’ve made any effort to improve accessibility, use that in your defence. It shows you’re not ignoring the issue, you’re actively working on it. Courts are more lenient when they see genuine effort. That alone can weaken the plaintiff’s case and help you push for dismissal.

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Before anything else, scan your site and gather proof of what’s already working. It could be the difference between settling and winning.

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What are the chances of winning an ADA lawsuit?

That depends on one key factor: whether the lawsuit was filed in good faith.

Not every ADA lawsuit is a scam. If it’s a genuine claim from a real user who couldn’t access your site, your chances of winning the ADA lawsuit are low. In that case, the smart move is to settle and fix the accessibility issues right away.

But if the lawsuit was filed in bad faith, with no contact, vague claims, or a pattern of serial filings, your chances of winning the ADA lawsuit go up. Courts have dismissed many of these cases when businesses showed that the plaintiff was not acting in good faith.

Don’t settle. Defend smart. Win fair.

Not all ADA website lawsuits are legitimate. Many are filed without any real attempt to use your site. Some plaintiffs and law firms send out dozens of near-identical complaints, hoping you’ll panic and settle fast. Thankfully, courts are starting to push back against this pattern.

If you’ve been hit with an ADA website lawsuit, take a breath. It feels scary at first, but you have more control than you think. If the case wasn’t filed in good faith, you have a real chance to win. In many cases, you can even recover your legal fees.

Still, winning the lawsuit is only part of the story. It’s also a wake-up call.

If someone could target your site, others might too – and next time, it could be a real user with a valid claim. That’s why it’s important to start taking accessibility seriously now. Not just to avoid lawsuits, but to make your website usable and inclusive for everyone.

Here are some helpful resources to get you started:

• Does My Website Need to Be ADA Compliant?
• How to Check if Your Website Is ADA Compliant
• How to Make a Website ADA Compliant

Start building accessibility into your website, monitor it consistently, and leave no gaps for serial plaintiffs to exploit. Accessibility done right is your best defence strategy.