Sued by Mendez Law Offices over your website?

Mendez Law Offices, PLLC and Adams & Associates, P.A. are two Miami-area law firms that file ADA lawsuits together in the Southern District of Florida, many of them about websites. If your business was named in one, here's what the complaints say and what to do first.

This is a technical accessibility assessment, not legal advice, and automated testing cannot establish ADA compliance.

What the court records show

Between July 1 and October 13, 2026, the two firms filed 37 ADA cases together in the Southern District of Florida, for four plaintiffs, by our count of the public dockets on CourtListener. Most name a national or regional chain: retailers, car dealers, tire and auto service shops, restaurants. Only 3 of the complaints are public so far, and we read all 3: a regional car wash chain, a national electronics retailer and a train line. All 3 were about a website.

What the complaint says

The 3 complaints follow the same template and run 31 pages each:

• The plaintiff is visually impaired, lives in Miami-Dade County and uses a screen reader. The complaint says he or she also visits websites as a "tester," to check whether they are accessible.
• The plaintiff tried to use the website several times in one month to look at products, prices and hours, and plans to come back to the website and the store within 30 days.
• The complaint lists 9 to 17 barriers, found by hand with the NVDA screen reader, each with the WCAG 2.1 rule it breaks, the page address and a link to a screen recording. They are specific to each site: form fields announced only as "edit blank," error messages a screen reader never reads out, a submenu or calendar buttons the keyboard skips, a selected option that isn't announced, no "skip to main content" link.
• The site's accessibility widget didn't help. All 3 complaints say the website had an accessibility statement and a widget, and that they were still a barrier for a blind user.
• An expert hired by the plaintiff visited the site afterwards and found the same barriers and more. The complaint says more may be found on other pages during the case.
• The complaint says notice before suing was not required.

Each one makes two claims: one under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and one for trespass under Florida law.

The trespass claim

The second claim is about cookies. The complaint says the website placed analytics and tracking cookies on the plaintiff's computer without consent, because the cookie banner doesn't work with a screen reader, so a blind visitor can't understand it or agree to it. It quotes the site's own cookie or privacy policy. Unlike the ADA claim, this one asks for damages.

What it asks the court for

• A declaration that the website violates the ADA.
• An order to fix the website by a set date and keep it accessible, including any third-party vendors on it.
• A disability logo on the website linking to an accessibility page, an accessibility policy linked from the home page, a way to report problems, and a website accessibility coordinator.
• Yearly accessibility training for whoever builds or edits the website.
• Automated accessibility tests every three months, with 12 quarterly reports sent to the plaintiff's lawyers.
• The plaintiff's attorneys' fees and costs under the ADA claim, and damages, interest and costs under the trespass claim.

What any of this means for your business is a question for your attorney. How these lawsuits work, in plain English.

Common questions

Is the lawsuit real?

A filed case has a case number, such as 1:26-cv-25971. You can look it up free on CourtListener or on PACER, the federal courts' own system. If the case is there, it's real.

We never got a letter first. Is that normal?

In these complaints, yes. All 3 say notice before suing wasn't required, and none mentions a letter. Some other firms send a demand letter first; these cases start with the lawsuit.

We have an accessibility widget. Doesn't that cover us?

All 3 sites in the complaints we read had one, and the complaints count it as part of the problem. A widget doesn't change the code underneath, which is where these barriers are. Do accessibility widgets stop lawsuits?

What about our cookie banner?

It comes up in both claims. In one complaint, the first barriers listed are a cookie pop-up the keyboard can't close, so the rest of the site can't be used. Check yours with a keyboard and a screen reader: can you hear what it says, reach its buttons and accept or decline? Whether the trespass claim holds is a legal question; ask your attorney.

Will an automated scan find these problems?

Only some of them. A scan finds form fields with no label and a missing way to skip the navigation. Most of the other barriers in these complaints, like an error message that isn't announced or a menu the keyboard skips, show up only when someone works through the site with a keyboard and a screen reader. How we test, and what a scan can't tell you.

First steps

1. Write down the date you were served and talk to an attorney. A lawsuit has a short, fixed deadline to respond. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away.
2. List the specific barriers in the complaint. Each one comes with the page address and a screen recording, so you can check it on your own site.
3. Test your forms with a keyboard. Sign-in, sign-up, checkout and gift card forms come up again and again in these complaints, especially error messages.
4. Get the technical facts. Find out which barriers still exist today, and what else a scan finds. The complaint says its list is not the full list.
5. Fix the real issues in the site itself. Step-by-step fixes: WordPress, Shopify.
6. Keep dated records of what was wrong, what you changed and when.

How we counted

On October 15, 2026 we searched CourtListener for federal civil-rights cases coded "ADA – Other" that list both firms as plaintiff's counsel and were filed from July 1 to October 13, 2026. Cases that haven't reached CourtListener aren't counted, so the real number may be higher. We read the complaints that were available as public documents. We have no connection to either firm or their clients. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we'll correct it.

Sued by a different firm? See Gottlieb & Associates, Joseph & Norinsberg, Usher Law Group, East End Trial Group, Nye, Stirling, Hale, Miller & Sweet, ADA Legal Team.