We are attorneys helping end service animal discrimination in California

Service Animal Law Basics

The biggest problem we run into helping disabled people with service animals is outright discrimination by businesses and other public facilities. However, service animal law compliance is very easy.

The ADA law is very clear about service animals: in nearly all cases, the service animal is allowed to go where you are.

Moreover, a business is only allowed to ask you two questions when assessing your service animal:

• "Is the dog a service animal required because of your disability?"
• "What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?"

In almost all cases, any additional inquiry is not allowed under the ADA. However, many businesses demand to see "paperwork" documenting the qualifications of service animals, or worse yet, the extent and nature of your disability. This is highly illegal.

How to Stop Service Animal Discrimination in California

Service animal discrimination results from a combination of apathy, ignorance, and laziness on behalf businesses in California. Whatever the reason, discriminating against a person's disability is illegal and morally unacceptable. This is why strong laws protect the rights of disabled people and their service animals.

Service animal discrimination can stop with just a few simple steps:

Education & Outreach

Let's face it. Many business owners are simply misinformed about ADA compliance and your rights as a disabled person. Sometimes all it takes is a simple conversation to clear the air and end the discrimination. Even a cursory online search will reveal an abundance of resources that a business can utilize to comply with the ADA.

Legal Action

Just like everything in life, there is an easy way and a hard way. For intransigent businesses, only sometimes the threat of legal action can result in meaningful access for disabled patrons utilizing service animals. That's where we come in. We proudly advocate for service animals throughout California. With over a dozen years of combined disability access litigation experience, our law practice takes on service animal cases to ensure that businesses comply with all areas of the ADA.

In nearly every case, we go to court to ensure that a business complies with service animal laws and obtain damages at no cost to our clients.