Landmark Levi’s Stadium Accessibility Settlement Preliminarily Approved

March 30, 2020

GBDH and co-counsel obtained a landmark class action settlement requiring the Forty Niners and other Defendants to make Levi’s Stadium accessible to persons with mobility disabilities and their companions and pay $24 million to eligible class members with mobility disabilities for violation of their civil right to experience events at the Stadium without difficulty, discomfort or embarrassment.

GBDH and co-counsel Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky and Peffer Wolf Carr & Kane obtained a landmark class action settlement requiring the Forty Niners and other Defendants to make Levi’s Stadium accessible to persons with mobility disabilities and their companions and pay $24 million to eligible class members with mobility disabilities for violation of their civil rights to experience events at the Stadium without difficulty, discomfort or embarrassment. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Judge Lucy H. Koh, presiding) preliminarily approved the Settlement on March 9, 2020, and ordered class notice to be sent to class members and publicly posted by March 30, 2020. The Final Approval Hearing is currently set for July 16, 2020.

The Settlement resolves claims brought on behalf of three certified classes of persons with mobility disabilities and their companions alleging that they were denied full and equal access to Levi’s Stadium’s facilities, services, accessible seating, parking, and other amenities due to Defendants’ failure to construct the Stadium in compliance with disability access standards. Under the terms of the Settlement, Defendants will fix thousands of physical access barriers identified by Plaintiffs at the Stadium, in its main parking lot, and in the pedestrian right of way connecting the parking lots to the Stadium; will ensure that the shuttle services provided are accessible to persons with mobility disabilities; and will make improvements to how tickets for accessible seating are sold and exchanged to ensure that individuals with mobility disabilities have the same access to ticketing services as the general public.

The Forty Niners will pay $24 million collectively to Damages Class Members who submit valid, timely, and approved claims (by June 28, 2020) in order to resolve their claims for statutory damages under the California Unruh Civil Rights Act for incidents of discrimination they suffered as a result of access barriers at the Stadium between April 13, 2015 and March 9, 2020. The $24 million Damages Fund is the largest ever obtained in a case alleging that a place of public accommodation violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Please see the GBDH case webpage or Settlement Website for additional information.