Monroe Law

I hope we, as Philadelphians and Americans, still care about people who unlike those of us who won the sperm/geographic lottery and were born American citizens in a time of absurd prosperity and comfort still value hardworking people who are truly pulling themselves up from nothing but a whisper of a hope of tasting the American dream. These guys are my clients. They got mortgages and bought houses. They put their kids through college on money they earned from food trucks... and food carts. These are businesses they got into, for the most part, by squirreling away money from minimum wage (or less) jobs to buy, or finance (not from banks ... and at interest rates that would make Tony Soprano salivate) their food carts and food trucks. These trucks have been on this southwest corner at Broad and Spring Garden for 20+ years. They have regular customers who know them. Who have come there for years, just like a brick and mortar restaurant. They could lose everything. Why? For more new condominiums? They will lose their livelihoods. They will run the risk of going broke on the margins. Their American Dream will become a nightmare. This is not a unique story of small changes in government regulation. This is a modern, big city political story. Stay tuned... https://whyy.org//food-cart-owners-say-city-hall-is-pushi/

I'm really proud of this one: Following trial, Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of PA, awarded our client $56,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in punitive damages. Our client is a career limousine driver who was preyed on, as a member of an immigrant community in Brooklyn, and swindled out of his life's savings, believing he was buying a gas station from someone who didn't even own it. "Punitive damages are appropriate here. The evid...ence presented at trial supports the conclusion that Mr Ijaz’s conduct was premeditated; that even before he met Plaintiff, he intended to defraud someone; that Mr. Ijaz specifically preyed on an immigrant community through the advertisement; that once Mr. Ijaz had met Plaintiff, he understood that he would be swindling a person approaching the end of his career (Plaintiff being advanced in age); that Mr. Ijaz was a sophisticated actor who was in the gas station business; and that Mr. Ijaz understood the consequences of their actions would be to uproot Plaintiff’s life and cause him great hardship. These conclusions show a wholly wanton disregard of Plaintiff’s rights. Smith, 564 A.2d at 193. Further, the decision to re-place the advertisement for the sale of the gas station in the Urdu Timesafter the events at issue in this case had occurredindicates that Mr. Ijaz may engage in similar conduct again. Punitive damages are therefore appropriate here to deter that future conduct. Sajid v. Ijaz, Civ-Case No. 18-1899 (E.D. Pa., Aug. 12, 1019) I am forever grateful to have had co-counsel Jen Hope to help me work up the case before trial and to pull together the record for a cogent post-trial briefing.

Monroe Law principal attorney Matt Monroe is again in the news. We have resolved several of these ADA suits on behalf of our Philadelphia restaurant clients. If you own a Philadelphia restaurant, hotel or other business providing goods or services to the public, contact us to learn how to maximize access for blind customers and to guard against lawsuits brought by out-of-state plaintiffs filing multiple claims. ... https://www.inquirer.com//philly-restaurants-ada-website-a

Protect your business against scurrilous drive-by ADA website lawsuits with a strong offense by making your webpage accessible to visually impaired and blind people. If you need a good defense, we are here. The Internet has been called "The Great Equalizer." No one should be denied access to the World Wide Web, including people who are blind. A flurry of lawsuits by unscrupulous lawyers brought under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act seek, not to provide web... access, but to shake down Pennsylvania restaurants, hotels, art galleries and other brick-and-mortar businesses who advertise their services via websites. The New York Times reported that two blind plaintiffs split up a list of dozens of art galleries to sue them en masse. One plaintiff sued galleries with names beginning A-H, and another suing those beginning with I-Z. It's an entire alphabet of questionable claims ... and then some. The number of these filings exploded in 2018, with 2,258 new ADA website suits filed in federal courts in 2018, a 177% increase over the prior year. Monroe Law has experience representing Philadelphia restaurants, hotels and hospitality businesses against unscrupulous ADA website lawsuits. We also counsel clients on WCAG 2.0 compliance to make websites accessible to blind individuals, which is good for everyone. Contact us to discuss how you can protect your business from these costly, unpredictable claims, before you get served. And if you have already been sued, call us ... like yesterday. https://www.nytimes.com//blind-lawsuits-art-galleries.html

After a grueling three-day trial, and through post-trial motions, we are thrilled to receive a judgment in excess of $120K in a case brought on behalf of a homeowner plagued by an unscrupulous contractor. The award includes treble damages by way of Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. Treble damages is a hifalutin legal term that means "three times" the damages, and Pennsylvania's consumer statutes... sweeten the incentive to bring these types of actions against shady businesses by giving judges the discretion to award treble damages in cases where folks act really, really bad. (In this case, the contractors were bad actors). Kicking ass feels pretty good.