The spate of ADA lawsuits against credit unionsspread from Virginia to Georgia this week, where at least two morecredit unions have been sued over the accessibility of theirwebsites, according to court documents.

Those filings show that Hapeville, Georgia-based Family FirstCredit Union and Atlanta-based Fort McPherson Credit Union wereboth hit with lawsuits filed in District Court on November15. Family First Credit Union has $98 million in assets andabout 12,600 members; Fort McPherson Credit Union has $23 millionin assets and about 4,500 members.

Both suits have the same plaintiff, though it's not the sameperson suing nearly two dozen credit unions in Virginia. Accordingto the complaints, however, the Georgia and Virginia plaintiffs dohave the same California-based attorneys.

Similar to the Virginia cases, the two lawsuits in Georgiaallege that the Family First and Fort McPherson websites violatethe Americans with Disabilities Act. That law prohibitsdiscrimination on the basis of disability for equal enjoyment ofgoods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages oraccommodations in public places.

That alleged discrimination includes, among other things,failing to embed code that allows screen readers to vocalizedescriptions of graphics on credit union websites, having redundantlinks and empty or missing form labels, according to thecomplaints. Due to these things, visually impaired users can'tlook for locations or learn about the credit unions' services,privileges, advantages and amenities, they alleged.

“Family First Credit Union's website is in compliance with thelaws, the credit union denies any wrongdoing, and this is afrivolous lawsuit that the credit union plans to vehemently defendagainst through its retained counsel,” a spokesperson told CUTimes. Fort McPherson Credit Union did not respond to arequest for comment.

Motion to dismiss

Earlier this month, Chesapeake, Virginia-based ABNB FederalCredit Union filed a motion to dismiss a similar lawsuit against itand challenged the allegations made in the case. Much of thatcredit union's beef revolves around whether websites are publicplaces and what exactly the rules are for making themaccessible.

In a memo to the court, the credit union argued, for example,that although the Department of Justice issued detailed guidelineson how to implement Title III of the ADA for brick-and-mortarfacilities, it never issued regulations regarding what is requiredfor internet facilities.

“On July 26, 2010 – over seven years ago – the DOJ published anAdvance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to set standards for Internetaccessibility for the visually-impaired. Those proposed regulationshave been deferred and deferred again,” it wrote.

In lieu of regulations, conversations about site accessibilityoften revolve around standards developed by a group called theWorld Wide Web Consortium. One version of those standards,called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0AA, getsmost of the attention, experts say. However, thosestandards are not law or regulation, the credit union said.

ABNB also argued that the ADA doesn't deem websites places ofpublic accommodation.

“The ADA contains an extended definition of this term, listingalmost seventy 'places' of public accommodation, and each of theseplaces – library, bakery, shoe repair shop – are 'brick-and-mortar'establishments, i.e.,'places' in the normal and ordinary reading ofthe term,” it said.

ABNB also questioned whether the plaintiff in its case is partof the field of membership that would make him eligible tojoin.

“There is no allegation that would suggest he can, and hisscattershot approach of suing credit unions throughout theCommonwealth — each of which is subject to the same type of'membership field' restriction, albeit with very differentrequirements — strongly suggests he cannot,” ABNB said.

ABNB Federal Credit Union has $557 million in assets and hasabout 57,000 members.

In Virginia, at least five cases have been dismissed todate.

More to come?

ABNB's memo to the court also suggested that cases filed againstcredit unions in recent weeks may be just the tip of the iceberg.According to the document, “scores if not hundreds” of demandletters have been sent to other credit unions in Virginia andMaryland, and the letters threaten to sue within two weeks if aconfidential resolution is not achieved.

The filing highlighted another important consideration forcredit unions worried about ADA suits.

“ABNB plainly admits for the purpose of this motion that itsbrick-and-mortar facilities are public accommodations and must be —and are — accessible to the visually disabled. But there is nothingthat requires any individual to do business with ABNB only over itswebsite, and there is no advantage to so doing. There might becases where credit unions give higher rates of return on membershipaccounts opened over the internet, or charge less interest on loansoriginating in cyberspace. In those instances, we would have adifferent debate,” it said.