ADA Demand Letter From a Firm You’ve Never Heard Of? How to Check If It’s Real

An ADA demand letter says your website doesn’t work for blind or low-vision users and asks you to pay and fix it, usually by a short deadline. When it comes from a law firm you’ve never heard of, the first question is fair: is this even real?

It’s a question we hear often. This month a business owner sent my office a letter from a firm we had never heard of, despite tracking these cases every day. Its website listed no lawyer credentials, its phone number had an out-of-state area code, and the letter named no dollar amount, only a five-day deadline to “settle.”

My name is Michael Samuel. I’m an ADA defense attorney in New York, and I have defended about 100 ADA cases since 2019, most of them about websites. Some letters from unfamiliar firms are real, some are not, and a few minutes of checking usually tells you which. This article shows you how. Whatever you find, don’t pay, don’t call the number in the letter, and don’t ignore it until you know.

A real demand letter comes from a lawyer who can be identified, on behalf of a client who says they could not use your website. It usually:

• Names the law firm and the lawyer who signed it, with a real office address and phone number.
• Says who the client is, or describes them, typically a blind or low-vision person who uses a screen reader.
• Lists specific problems on your website, often with screenshots or the results of an automated scan.
• Cites the ADA and, in New York, the state and city human rights laws, and asks you to fix the site and pay money, often a specific amount.
• Gives a deadline to respond before the firm says it will file a lawsuit.

Not every real firm files lawsuits in New York. Some mainly send letters. We have written about two of them, Equal Access Law Group and Apex Trial Law. So a firm you can’t find in New York court records may still be real.

No single sign proves a letter is fake. Real firms use short deadlines and automated scans too. But these are the signs that should make you stop and check before doing anything else:

No identifiable lawyer. The letter is unsigned, signed only with a first name, or signed by someone you can’t find in any state’s lawyer records. The firm’s website lists lawyers with no bar admissions or law schools.

Details that don’t add up. A New York office with a phone number from another state, an address that doesn’t exist, or a firm website that says nothing about the kind of claim the letter makes.

Unusual ways to pay. A request to pay by gift card, cryptocurrency, wire transfer to a personal account or a payment app is a serious warning sign. The Federal Trade Commission says no legitimate business will insist on payment by gift card, and that anyone requiring payment in cryptocurrency is probably a scammer.

Threats of arrest or criminal charges. An ADA website claim is a civil matter. New York’s ethics rules bar a lawyer from threatening criminal charges solely to gain an advantage in a civil case, so a letter that does is improper even if the sender turns out to be real.

Pressure to call right away. “Call within 48 hours to settle,” with no dollar figure, is designed to get you on the phone, where whatever you say can be used against you. Pressure alone doesn’t make a letter fake, but it is a reason to let a lawyer make the call.

1. Look up the lawyer. Every lawyer admitted in New York must register with the state’s court system every two years, and the courts publish a free Attorney Search where anyone can look up a lawyer by name and see their registration status. If the letter says the lawyer is admitted in another state, check that state’s bar or court lookup instead.
2. Check the firm against the letter. Does the address on the letter match the firm’s website and its public listings? Does the phone number belong to the firm? Is the person who signed the letter named on the firm’s site?
3. Look for a lawsuit. If the letter says a case has been filed, look it up: PACER for federal court, NYSCEF for New York State Supreme Court. A real lawsuit has a court and a case or index number. If nothing has been filed, you have a letter, not a lawsuit.
4. Check the claims against your site. Are the problems in the letter actually on your website? Even a fake letter can point at real barriers, and real barriers are what the next, real letter will be about.

Our free complaint checker also reads demand letters. Upload yours for a plain-English summary of who sent it, what it claims and what it asks for.

Don’t pay and don’t call. Paying a fake demand loses the money. Paying a real one without a written settlement doesn’t end the claim. Calling the number in the letter, real or not, gives the sender information about your business.

Have a lawyer respond. A short letter from your lawyer asking for the sender’s bar admission, the client’s identity and the specific barriers claimed sorts out most of these quickly. A real firm can answer those questions easily.

If it’s real, treat it as the start of a claim. Read what to do in the first 48 hours after an ADA demand letter, and see what these cases usually cost to resolve.

If it’s fake, report it. Under New York law the Attorney General can bring an action against anyone practicing law without a license, and you can also report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Then check your website anyway: the barriers in the letter may still be real.

Michael Samuel has defended about 100 ADA cases since 2019, most of them about websites. We track new ADA filings and the firms that send these letters, so we can usually tell you quickly who is behind a letter and how they operate.

Send us the letter and we’ll check the sender, tell you whether it’s real, and if it is, what a realistic resolution looks like and what it would cost. The fee is quoted up front, before you commit.

For the website itself, we work with Codexyo, an independent web accessibility team that fixes sites like yours. They are not lawyers, and you’re free to use anyone.