For several years now, businesses have been plagued by litigation alleging violations of the American with Disabilities Act (whether violations existed or not) in order to extract a financial settlement (small enough to be worth settling, but large enough to be a problem) from the business owner. Such lawsuits become known as “drive-by lawsuits”. For the past few years, DDIFO and others comprising the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) have pushed for Congressional resolution to this abuse of the ADA. Now, we learn of the latest iteration of the drive-by lawsuit, Drive-by 2.0, if you will. Over a 3 day period last month, 33 different class action suits were filed against a number of retailers and restaurants in US District Courts in New York alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the defendant companies did not offer gift cards that include Braille. As is often the case with drive-by lawsuits, the same lawyers are representing the plaintiffs in many of the cases – in fact, only 2 attorneys are involved in all 33 actions. This kind of abuse needs to be addressed by the US Congress – that is, if they ever get back to doing the people’s business!