I would speculate that 80% of website accessibility litigation settles for between $8000 and $17,000. On the extreme ends $3000 on the low side and then $23,000 on the higher side.
Determining Factors
The firm that’s settling if the firm is smaller less experienced reluctant to file in court that firm is likely going to settle for a lesser amount than a firm that is experienced, files regularly, and they’ve dealt they’ve negotiated against entities of all sizes – they’re going to be more inflexible when it comes to lowering the settlement amount.
Also the stage of the settlement. If it’s after demand letter is sent, then that likely will keep the keep the dollar amount lower. However, if a complaint is filed if motions are filed then I think that’s going to lend to a higher settlement amount.
So those are what those are the factors that go into the actual settlement amount, but what’s very, very important is that it’s not just the settlement amount that is the that is going to cost the defendant.
Stipulations
The non-money terms of ADA website settlements can greatly affect the total cost of settling.
What I have seen our audits that are mandated, user testing that is mandated, changes to the website that are mandated, the hiring of a third party could – all of these things can be included in into a settlement and often are, but they’re not something they are- these are these are terms that can increase the cost for the defendant.
So let’s say an audit an audit as part of the settlement. Well that’s fine but if you have an audit that is done quarterly that can be quite expensive and also unnecessary.
And the same thing goes for user testing. User testing can be extremely expensive and if it’s done quarterly that’s even more expensive and it likely quarterly is so is so frequent that it may not even help to have it done that often.
So you really have to pay attention to what it is and how often you’re doing it and then whether you have to report into the plaintiffs’ law firm.
But to the other side of this where we’re going beyond the dollar amount of the settlement and into the settlement terms and when you look at those settlement terms they can end up they can easily end up exceeding the cost of the actual settlement.
