Q3 ADA Website Lawsuit Report
EcomBack ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit Report - Q3 2026
2,805 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed from January through September 2026, a 9.69% decrease from the 3,106 filed during the same period in 2025. Filings stayed historically high, more than 10 lawsuits per day.
Summary
State-Wise ADA Website Lawsuits Filed
Lawsuits are still packed into a few states, but the order has shifted. California held first place with 652 filings, while New York, the usual number one, dropped 29.83% and slipped to second. Florida fell to third, and Illinois rose 15.02% to fourth.
- New York declined: Filings fell from 895 in 2025 to 628 in 2026 (−29.83%), a decrease of 267 cases the largest drop in raw numbers among the states listed.
- California remained stable: Filings increased slightly from 647 to 652 (+0.77%), keeping California in the top position in 2026.
- Florida saw a significant decline: Filings dropped from 752 to 521 (−30.72%), a reduction of 231 cases.
- Illinois continued to grow: Filings increased from 446 to 513 (+15.02%), making it the fourth highest state in 2026.
- Indiana recorded the fastest growth: Filings rose from 42 to 111 (+164.29%), showing a substantial increase in litigation activity.
- Wisconsin also surged: Filings climbed from 36 to 82 (+127.78%), more than doubling compared with 2025.
- Minnesota continued to grow: Filings increased from 131 to 158 (+20.61%), reflecting a steady rise in cases.
- All Other States declined: Combined filings fell from 157 to 140 (−10.83%), indicating a decrease in cases outside the states listed individually.
Total Federal and State Court ADA Website Lawsuit (Jan - Sep) 2026
Website Accessibility Lawsuits 2026 Vs 2025
- 2026 (2,805)
- 2025 (3,106)
Key Summary Points
ADA website lawsuits totaled 2,805 from January through September 2026, compared with 3,106 non-CIPA cases in 2025, representing a 9.69% decrease. However, the overall decline masks significant shifts in filing activity across states.
- New York declined: Filings fell from 895 to 628 (−29.83%), a decrease of 267 cases. Despite the decline, New York remains the highest state in the 2026 figures.
- California remained stable: Filings increased slightly from 647 to 652 (+0.77%), keeping California in the top position.
- Florida saw a significant drop: Filings decreased from 752 to 521 (−30.72%), a reduction of 231 cases.
- Illinois continued to grow: Filings rose from 446 to 513 (+15.02%), making Illinois the fourth highest state in the 2026 figures.
- Indiana recorded the fastest growth: Filings jumped from 42 to 111 (+164.29%), showing a substantial increase in litigation activity.
- Wisconsin also surged: Filings increased from 36 to 82 (+127.78%), more than doubling compared with 2025.
- Minnesota increased: Filings rose from 131 to 158 (+20.61%), indicating continued growth in the state.
- All Other States collectively declined from 157 to 140 filings (−10.83%), suggesting a modest reduction in cases outside the states listed individually.
Only 30 Plaintiffs Filed Over 50% of ADA Website Lawsuits (Jan–Sep 2026)
From January through September 2026, 253 different plaintiffs filed 2,805 lawsuits. But the top of the field stayed tight: just 30 plaintiffs filed more than half of all cases (1,440 lawsuits, 51.34%), while the remaining 223 plaintiffs collectively filed 1,365 lawsuits (48.66%). The Top 36 plaintiffs reached 55.61% and the Top 88 accounted for 80.18%, so the same small group still drives the majority of filings.
Plaintiff Concentration, Jan–Sep 2026
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Top 5 Plaintiffs 630 lawsuits (22.46%)
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Top 10 Plaintiffs 862 lawsuits (30.73%)
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Top 36 Plaintiffs 1,560 lawsuits (55.61%)
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Top 88 Plaintiffs 2,249 lawsuits (80.18%)
Key Summary Points
- Total ADA website lawsuits fell from 3,106 in Jan–Sep 2025 to 2,805 in Jan–Sep 2026, a 9.69% decrease. Even with the decline, ADA website litigation stayed highly concentrated among a small group of repeat plaintiffs.
- Michael Sandoval (Manning Law, APC) remained the most active plaintiff by a wide margin, filing 242 lawsuits (8.63%) from January through September 2026.
- Julie Dalton (Throndset Michenfelder, LLC) ranked second with 142 lawsuits (5.06%), while Perla Mageno (Manning Law, APC) held third with 102 lawsuits (3.64%).
- Jesus Torres (Manning Law, APC) filed 82 lawsuits (2.92%), followed by Nestor A. Proveyer (Adams & Associates, P.A.) with 62 (2.21%) and Sheila Biglang-Awa-Castro (Manning Law, APC) with 50 (1.78%), rounding out the leading repeat plaintiffs.
- Concentration remained a defining trend. The Top 5 plaintiffs filed 630 lawsuits (22.46%), the Top 10 filed 862 (30.73%), the Top 36 filed 1,560 (55.61%), and the Top 88 filed 2,249 (80.18%). These figures show that ADA website litigation continues to be driven by a relatively small group of repeat plaintiffs.
- Manning Law’s presence among leading plaintiffs remained notable. Six prominent plaintiffs Sandoval, Mageno, Torres, Jennifer Carbine, Rebecca Hernandez, and Sheila Biglang-Awa-Castro filed cases associated with the firm, highlighting the role of high volume plaintiffs in its litigation activity.
Only 11 Law Firms Filed More Than 81% of ADA Website Lawsuits (Jan–Sep 2026)
January through September 2026 continued to show a highly concentrated pattern in ADA website litigation. Out of 2,805 total lawsuits filed, just 11 law firms filed 2,285 lawsuits, accounting for 81.46% of all cases, showing that a relatively small group of plaintiff firms continues to dominate ADA website accessibility litigation.
Law Firm Concentration, Jan–Sep 2026
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Top 5 Plaintiff Firms 1,732 lawsuits (61.75%)
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Top 13 Plaintiff Firms 2,402 lawsuits (85.63%)
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Top 16 Plaintiff Firms 2,554 lawsuits (91.05%)
Key Summary Points
- Manning Law, APC led the rankings with 570 lawsuits (20.32%), followed closely by Equal Access Law Group, PLLC. Its monthly filings peaked at 95 in July before declining to 29 in September.
- Equal Access Law Group, PLLC ranked second with 548 lawsuits (19.54%). Filings were strongest from January through March, peaking at 112 in March, before dropping sharply to 1 in September.
- Gottlieb & Associates ranked third with 308 lawsuits (10.98%), maintaining consistent activity throughout the period and recording its highest monthly total of 45 in September.
- Throndset Michenfelder, LLC filed 158 lawsuits (5.63%), while Stein Saks, PLLC recorded 148 (5.28%). Both firms remained among the leading contributors to ADA website litigation.
- Joseph & Norinsberg, LLC (115), Roderick V. Hannah, Esq., P.A. (110), NYE Stirling, Hale & Miller, LLP (93), Adams & Associates, P.A. (80), Mizrahi Kroub LLP (80), and AJG Law Group, PC (75) rounded out the leading firms shown in the table.
- Litigation remained highly concentrated among a small group of firms. The top 5 firms accounted for 1,732 lawsuits (61.75%), the top 13 accounted for 2,402 (85.63%), and the top 16 accounted for 2,554 (91.05%) of all filings.
- Overall, 40 law firms accounted for all 2,805 lawsuits recorded from January through September 2026. The top 11 firms filed 2,285 cases (81.46%), while the remaining 29 firms contributed 520 cases (18.54%), highlighting the concentration of ADA website litigation among a relatively small group of plaintiff firms.
8 Industries Faced Over 93% of Lawsuits (Jan–Sep 2026)
January through September 2026 continued to show a highly concentrated pattern in ADA website litigation. Out of 2,805 lawsuits filed, just 8 industries accounted for 2,621 lawsuits (93.44%), reinforcing that ADA website accessibility litigation remains focused on a small number of high risk industry sectors.
Key Summary Points
- Industry concentration: The Top 8 industries accounted for 2,621 of the 2,805 ADA website lawsuits filed from January through September 2026, representing 93.44% of all filings. ADA website litigation stayed concentrated among a limited number of consumer facing sectors.
- Leading industries: Restaurant, Food, Drinks & Beverages remained the most targeted industry with 853 lawsuits (30.41%), ahead of Lifestyle, Fashion, Clothing & Apparel with 801 lawsuits (28.56%). Together, these two sectors made up 58.97% of all ADA website lawsuits, more than half from just two industries.
- Other major targets: Health, Beauty & Wellness ranked third with 408 lawsuits (14.55%), followed by Home, Furniture & Garden with 258 lawsuits (9.20%), reflecting continued litigation across major consumer facing industries.
- Additional activity: Lawsuits were also filed across Retail & Consumer Goods (94), Fitness & Sports Accessories (77), Automotive, Tools & Equipment (70), and Computer, Mobile & Electronic Accessories (60), showing that while litigation stays concentrated, a broad range of industries continues to face accessibility related legal action.
Widget Usage Fails to Prevent ADA Lawsuits: 2026 (Jan - Sep) Analysis
Despite the growing adoption of accessibility widgets, 675 ADA website lawsuits (24.06%) were filed against websites using accessibility widgets from January through September 2026, compared with 751 (24.18%) during the same period of 2025. This shows that accessibility widgets alone do not ensure ADA compliance, and full WCAG conformant remediation remains essential to reduce litigation risk.
Lawsuits Against Websites with Accessibility Widgets: Q3 2026 (675) vs 2025 (751)
- 2026 (675)
- 2025 (751)
ADA Lawsuits Filed Against Website Platforms (Jan–Sep 2026)
Website platforms play a critical role in enabling businesses to build and manage their digital presence. While many platforms offer accessibility features and third-party tools, ADA website accessibility lawsuits can still occur when accessibility is not effectively incorporated into the overall user experience. Ultimately, responsibility for ADA compliance rests with the website owner.
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Shopify
1,288 lawsuits
45.92% of all filings
A leading e-commerce platform that helps businesses build, manage, and grow online stores with customizable storefronts, flexible features, and easy to use management tools.
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Other Custom Coded Websites
929 lawsuits
33.12% of all filings
Custom designed websites tailored to meet unique business needs through personalized functionality and seamless user experiences.
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WordPress
355 lawsuits
12.66% of all filings
A widely used content management system known for its extensive customization options and broad ecosystem of themes, plugins, and third party integrations.
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Squarespace
92 lawsuits
3.28% of all filings
A user friendly website building platform that helps businesses create, manage, and maintain professional websites using intuitive built in tools.
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Wix
76 lawsuits
2.71% of all filings
A drag and drop website builder that helps small businesses create and manage websites and online stores using customizable templates and built in tools.
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Magento
65 lawsuits
2.32% of all filings
An open source e-commerce platform, now Adobe Commerce, that gives growing and enterprise businesses flexible control over complex catalogs, integrations, and storefronts.
Monthly ADA Website Lawsuits (Jan–Sep 2026)
Filings per month · 2,805 total
- Q1–Q2
- Q3
Digital Accessibility Trends: Q3 2026 Snapshot
As digital accessibility gains global momentum, new laws, enforcement actions, and the first major court rulings continue to reshape compliance for businesses worldwide. Three developments stand out heading into the final quarter of 2026.
CIPA Website Litigation: Q3 2026 Analysis
California’s wave of CIPA (California Invasion of Privacy Act) website lawsuits continued to build through the first three quarters of 2026, and the third quarter brought two structural changes worth watching. We tracked 345 CIPA website lawsuits filed between January 1 and September 30, 2026 and unlike the first half, when the field was defined by two firms filing in a single courthouse, Q3 saw new filers enter and new venues open up.
Filings rose every quarter
CIPA filings climbed steadily across 2026, with the third quarter the busiest yet:
Q1 (Jan–Mar)
94
lawsuits
Q2 (Apr–Jun)
113
lawsuits
Q3 (Jul–Sep)
138
lawsuits
Total (Jan–Sep)
345
lawsuits
Website Accessibility Laws in 2026
U.S. website accessibility risk remains high, even as federal enforcement eases. Courts continue to treat WCAG 2.1/2.2 Level AA as the de facto standard under the ADA, while the current administration’s deprioritization of federal enforcement is expected to increase not reduce private litigation risk, since the real pressure has always come from private plaintiffs. With 95.9% of top websites still non compliant and over 3,000 federal lawsuits filed in 2025, the exposure is as real as ever.
Read the full blog here: Website Accessibility Laws, Explained Without the Legal Headache
EAA Enforcement: The First Rulings Land
The European Accessibility Act is now being enforced but unevenly, and nothing like the U.S. lawsuit machine. France has produced the first real courtroom rulings (Carrefour was ordered to fix its site under a €500/day penalty; Auchan won a dismissal on a technicality, now under appeal), Germany is seeing competitor warning letters, and regulators in Sweden and the Netherlands are running audits. No EAA fine has yet been confirmed anywhere in the EU but the law applies based on who you sell to, not where you’re based, so non-EU sellers can be in scope.
Read the full blog here: EAA Lawsuits in the EU: What the First Rulings Actually Tell Us
SB 690 Is Now Law: CIPA Relief, With an Asterisk
California’s SB 690, signed September 30, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027, ends the wave of private “CIPA shakedown” lawsuits over website tracking by removing the private right to sue for pen register and trap and trace claims leaving only the Attorney General and it reaches back retroactively to claims filed on or after January 1, 2025. But the win is narrow: it doesn’t make the conduct legal, and CIPA’s wiretapping provisions (§§ 631/632) remain open to private plaintiffs, so litigation is expected to shift rather than stop. Keep your consent and cookie practices tight.
Read the full blog here: SB 690 Is Now Law: What California’s CIPA Reform Means for Your Business
Month by month: January 32, February 32, March 30, April 36, May 24, June 53, July 50, August 57, and September 31. (September’s lower figure likely reflects the reporting lag seen elsewhere in this report and may rise as late added cases are recorded.)
The two-firm monopoly cracked
The single most important development: the duopoly that filed every CIPA website case in the first half no longer holds. Through Q3, Pacific Trial Attorneys, APC (146 cases, 42.3%) and Brodsky Smith (135 cases, 39.1%) still dominate together 81.4% of all filings but at least a dozen other firms entered the space during the third quarter, every one of them filing its first CIPA website case in July or later.
The new entrants collectively filed 64 cases (18.6%) of a meaningful crack in what had been a closed, two firm market. The pattern among the originals also shifted: Pacific Trial Attorneys front loaded its year, peaking at 39 filings in June before easing through Q3, while Brodsky Smith filed at a steadier pace throughout.
Federal courts entered the picture
In the first half of 2026, every CIPA website case was filed in California state court. That changed in the second half. Through Q3, 42 cases (12.2%) were filed in federal district courts primarily the Northern (16), Southern (13), and Central (10) Districts of California. Venue also broadened beyond Los Angeles: while Los Angeles County Superior Court still led with 245 cases (71.0%), that share fell from roughly 90% at mid-year as filings spread to San Diego (30), Alameda (10), San Bernardino (7), and the federal districts.
All but one of the 345 cases were filed in California; a single case appeared in New York.
Which industries are targeted
CIPA filers chase a different industry mix than ADA accessibility filers, skewing toward retail and services that run heavy third party tracking:
These top five industries account for 223 lawsuits — 64.6% of all CIPA filings. Shopify was again the most common platform (123 cases), consistent with its e-commerce footprint.
Your accessibility widget is not privacy protection
What this means for businesses
CIPA risk and ADA risk continue to arrive together the same California courts, many of the same consumer facing online retailers, and now a widening group of plaintiff firms. With SB 690 removing the private right of action for pen register claims as of January 1, 2027 (see Digital Accessibility Trends, above), expect filers to lean harder on the CIPA wiretapping theories that remain open to private suit. The durable protection is unchanged: inventory every cookie, pixel, tag, and script your site loads, confirm your consent tool actually blocks third party tracking before a visitor opts in, and keep privacy disclosures aligned as the site changes.
About EcomBack
EcomBack is a digital accessibility company that helps businesses and public organizations improve website accessibility and achieve ADA and WCAG compliance through accessibility audits, remediation guidance, ongoing monitoring, and compliance support.
In addition to our accessibility services, EcomBack publishes one of the industry's most comprehensive collections of ADA website accessibility lawsuit reports, providing detailed analysis of litigation trends across industries, platforms, states, plaintiffs, and law firms.
Our mission is to make digital accessibility more transparent and actionable by delivering reliable data, practical compliance solutions, and expert guidance that help organizations reduce legal risk while creating accessible digital experiences for everyone.
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Previous Monthly Lawsuit Reports
Browse past ADA website lawsuit reports to track trends and year over year data.
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