Ho v. The Hertz Corporation

In February 2024, DRA filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against national car rental company Hertz to end its systemic civil rights violations against people with disabilities who need hand controls to operate a rental car.

While there are many configurations, hand controls generally consist of a mechanism that allows drivers to accelerate and brake using one hand, and a “spinner knob” that allows for steering with the other hand. Though a single model of hand control may not work in every car, there are many models available, such that hand controls can be installed and used in virtually any car on the market today. Read the complaint.

Over twenty years ago, DRA negotiated a class settlement agreement with Hertz that required the company to, among other things, install temporary hand controls on all vehicle models for which they could safely be operated (see bottom of this page for link to accessible copy of settlement). For many years thereafter, Hertz had a policy of providing hand controls for people with disabilities in a wide variety of its rental cars. Unfortunately, in recent years Hertz has made its services less accessible to people with disabilities by drastically reducing the models and types of vehicles that may be reserved with hand controls. This means that Hertz openly excludes people who need hand controls from renting a variety of vehicle categories that are available to the company’s nondisabled customers.

By depriving customers who need hand controls of the opportunity to rent whole categories of vehicles available to nondisabled customers, Hertz is denying people with disabilities the full and equal enjoyment of its goods and services that is their legal right under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

DRA represents two individuals who use wheelchairs and require hand controls to operate a rental car. On multiple occasions, they have sought to rent a vehicle from Hertz but have found that hand controls were only available on an extremely limited (and often, more expensive) set of Hertz vehicles.

People with disabilities have been asking Hertz to revise its discriminatory hand control policies since at least 2016, and in January 2024 Plaintiffs sent the company a final letter asking that it voluntarily do so. Unfortunately, Hertz once again refused to make any changes, leaving us no choice but to file suit.

On August 21, the Court granted final approval of a settlement agreement in this class action lawsuit. If you are a person with a disability who needs hand controls to operate a rental vehicle, and who will potentially rent a vehicle from Hertz, then you are a member of the proposed settlement class. Under the settlement agreement Hertz will:

• Provide 20 minivans with left-side hand controls that will only be available to Hertz customers who need hand controls. Hertz will guarantee that these vans will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for prepaid, round-trip reservations that are made with a minimum 7 days’ advanced notice. These vans will be distributed to 20 select U.S. Hertz airport locations (“Hub Locations” and will be reservable for pick up at any corporate-owned location within a 200-mile radius of the Hub Location.
• Continue to provide left-side hand controls in the following vehicles during the 18-year term of the Agreement as long as they are manufactured without knee bolster airbags: (i) Kia K4, (ii) Chevrolet Equinox or GMC Terrain, (iii) Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon.
• Continue to provide right-side hand controls in the following vehicles during the 18-month term: (i) Nissan Altima, (ii) Chevrolet Malibu, (iii) Chevrolet Equinox or GMC Terrain, (iv) Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon; and begin providing right-side hand controls in certain minivans in its fleet.
• Update its policies and practices to ensure (a) hand control users receive the same low prices that are available to Hertz customers who do not need hand controls; and (b) vehicles reserved with hand controls have them installed at the time of pickup and, if not, installation is prioritized and the customer receives a discount.
• Provide additional information online to make clear which vehicle categories can be reserved with hand controls.

If you experience a problem with a hand control reservation at Hertz, please submit a complaint directly with Hertz. You are also welcome to notify DRA to assist us in monitoring implementation of the agreement.

Note on case documents: The Giacopini v. Hertz settlement agreement in PDF form is the original, signed copy. The Word version was created solely for the purposes of providing an accessible copy of the original PDF, while this document is identical in content, the formatting slightly differs from the original PDF and it is not signed by any parties. This document should not be altered by anyone who downloads it as it is DRA property.