Don't panic-pay. Don't ignore it. Do this first.

1. Figure out whether it's a letter or a lawsuit

   A demand letter comes from a law firm and asks for money and changes to your site. Nothing has been filed in court yet.

   A lawsuit comes with a summons and a complaint, names a court and has a case number. Lawsuits have hard deadlines. In federal court you usually have 21 days after you're formally served to respond. State courts set their own deadlines. Miss one and the court can rule against you by default.

   Federal cases are public. You can look up the case number and the plaintiff's other cases for free on CourtListener. Many website suits are filed by the same few plaintiffs and firms, and seeing that pattern is useful to your lawyer.

2. Don't call the other side, and don't pay yet

   The letter is written to make paying quickly look like the cheapest way out. It might be, but you can't know that until a lawyer has seen it. Paying doesn't fix your site, so the same problems stay there for the next firm to find. Owners online describe being sued a second time after settling the first.

   Ignoring a real lawsuit is worse. The goal is to slow down, not to disappear.

3. Call your insurer and find a lawyer who does ADA defense

   Some business insurance policies cover these claims or pay for a defense lawyer. Call your agent, describe the letter, and ask. Then find a lawyer who handles ADA Title III defense specifically. Many have handled dozens of these and know the plaintiff firms by name. Ask what they charge for a first review. How to find the right lawyer

4. Scan your site today and keep the dated report

   Your lawyer will want to know what's actually wrong. Run a free Due Effort scan on your homepage and your most important pages (product pages, booking, contact, checkout), and save each report as a PDF. The date on it matters.

5. Start fixing, and write down everything you fix

   Under federal ADA law, a private plaintiff can't win money damages for a website. What they can win is a court order to fix the site, plus their attorney's fees. That's why fixing matters: courts have dismissed cases as moot when businesses showed the problems were already fixed.

   In April 2026, a federal court in New York dismissed a website case after the business filed a declaration and an accessibility consultant's audit report showing the site was accessible. The plaintiff offered nothing to rebut it. (Seyfarth Shaw summary)

   Two catches. That dismissal was without prejudice, so the plaintiff can amend or refile in state court. And some state laws do allow money damages. California's Unruh Act sets a minimum of $4,000 per violation, which fixing your site afterward doesn't erase. Your lawyer will know how this applies in your state.

6. Don't buy an overlay widget as your fix

   You'll get sales emails promising a one-line plugin that makes your site compliant. In 2025 the FTC ordered accessiBe, the biggest of these companies, to pay $1 million over claims that its tool could make any website compliant (FTC). Businesses running overlays keep getting sued. Fix the actual problems in your site's code and content.

7. Check whether your state gives you a window to fix

   Federal ADA law has no built-in notice-and-fix period for websites. Bills to add one have been proposed in Congress, but none has become law. A few states are acting on their own.

   Missouri passed a law, signed in May 2026 and effective August 28, 2026, that gives businesses 90 days to correct the problem. If a business takes substantial good-faith steps to fix it, courts presume the lawsuit is probably abusive. (StateScoop)

   New York, Florida and Illinois saw the most federal website suits in 2025 (Seyfarth Shaw). If you're in one of those states, expect the plaintiff's firm to have filed many near-identical cases.

What to bring to your lawyer

• The letter or the summons and complaint, and the date and way you received it
• Your dated scan reports
• A list of who built your site and which platform, theme and apps it uses
• Anything you've already changed, with dates
• Your insurance policy, or your agent's answer about coverage