Griffin v. City of Los Angeles

In July 2024, on the 34^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and four years before the Los Angeles Olympics, DRA filed a federal class action lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for denying people with mobility disabilities full and equal access to the City’s newly constructed and renovated public park facilities, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and California law.

The City’s construction and alterations of its parks make it difficult or impossible to obtain the health benefits and social support of this important community asset for Plaintiffs Judy Griffin, Olivia Almalel, R.S. and Communities Actively Living Independent and Free (“CALIF”), and all other persons with mobility disabilities. Not being able to safely access their neighborhood parks and popular parks and facilities is the reality for the plaintiffs and all other persons with mobility disabilities. Read the complaint.

The City’s parks and park facilities have multiple, pervasive, and hazardous physical access barriers including dangerous and inaccessible pedestrian pathways within City parks, inaccessible entrances and exits, inaccessible restrooms, inaccessible public buildings, inaccessible paths of travel within City parks, inaccessible athletic fields, inaccessible picnic areas, inaccessible playgrounds, and inaccessible or nonexistent parking for people with mobility disabilities.

Among other things, the lawsuit seeks an order to ensure that Los Angeles’s park facilities comply with laws and standards that have been in place for decades.

Plaintiffs are represented by:

• Disability Rights Advocates
• Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
• Law Office of Paula Pearlman
• Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP