Satchel Raye said he’d only pay to settle the lawsuit against Satchel’s Pizza if a judge demanded it. He’d been offered a $6,000 settlement—an easy exit ramp for a business with $3.5 million in annual sales.

His lawyer double checked to make sure he wanted to pass on the deal.

Raye told Mainstreet that he can have scruples because he has the backing, even if he wouldn’t advise another business owner to take the same path. The total cost if he lost in court could easily stretch tens of thousands of dollars.

“I wouldn’t give her $6 right now. I don’t want to give her anything. If I can get away with not giving anything, then to me, I’ve won,” Raye told Mainstreet on Monday.

Less than 48 hours later, on Wednesday afternoon, Raye got an email while waiting for lunch: the lawsuit was dropped by plaintiff Makeda Evans.

“Obviously, it’s just a huge relief,” Raye said.

The lawsuit centered on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements for business websites to be accessible to blind and visually impaired users. Evans has filed 52 of these ADA lawsuits over the last year and a half, primarily against local businesses like Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille, Gainesville Health and Fitness, Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, Northwest Seafood and Uppercrust Bakery.

Mainstreet revealed the breadth of the lawsuits in December 2025 and how Gainesville business owners reacted to the onslaught of lawsuits. The article caused other business owners to double check compliance, spurred readers to support impacted restaurants and resulted in additional coverage by media outlets. It quickly became Mainstreet’s most viewed story of 2025.

After the story, no local businesses were sued for ADA website compliance in January—the first time in 16 months. In February, Evans filed two lawsuits against businesses in Colorado, a hotel and a restaurant.

Of the 52 local businesses, the vast majority have paid settlements. There are still eight active North Central Florida cases, but settlement agreements are already working through the court system for five of those businesses.

Gainesville lawyer Gary Edinger, who represents Raye and other sued businesses, told Mainstreet that owners face huge pressure to settle. He called Raye the ‘toughest kid on the block’ for sticking with the case.

The other three cases—The TOP, Gainesville Health and Fitness and bb.q Chicken—remain active without settlement agreements showing up in court records.

Raye said fighting the lawsuit has consumed his hours since November. He’s been typing Facebook posts to keep customers updated and responding to long email threads with community residents, business owners and his own attorney.

The emails include a business owner in Jacksonville also facing an ADA lawsuit as the litigation continues to crop up across Florida. He also talked with two people who filed Florida Bar complaints against Evan’s attorney, Aleksandra Kravets. Kravets had filed over 200 cases when Mainstreet spoke with her.

Raye said his 65 employees keep busy with their jobs and don’t discuss the lawsuit. But he still keeps busy chatting about it.

“The employees are going about their business,” Raye said. “It’s more the customers; it’s all they want to talk about. They’re like ‘oh, you’re fighting it. That’s great.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not that great.’”

In December, Raye filed motions against Evans’ claim that his restaurant’s website violated ADA compliance. His IT expert said the website could easily be navigated by anyone familiar with the text-to-speech software used by the visually impaired.

Many of the issues, Raye said, dealt with third-party businesses. He said Satchel’s Pizza linked to 352 Delivery to provide pizza delivery. Raye refuses to deal with national cooperations like DoorDash and Uber Eats. He’s just not interested.

“We’ve never used any of these big names because I want to use a local company,” Raye said. “This guy, Jeremiah, owns 352 Delivery. He pays his people wages, and they’re not just contract workers. I like the way he runs his business.”

But Raye said Evans also found ADA faults with the 352 Delivery website linked to his restaurant’s web page. So he removed the link to end the problem. Now in its place, there’s just a message to go straight to 352’s website.

Raye said that because Satchel’s Pizza is no longer directly linked to the delivery company’s website, customers will probably scroll past three other pizza places before they reach his, but it’s a price he’s willing to pay, especially since delivery is a small portion of the business anyway. Most customers want to visit in person and see the restaurant’s stained-glass walls made by Raye, pennies glued to tabletops and his 1965 Ford Falcon van fit with dining tables.

Raye said Edinger tipped the legal billing in his favor because he supported the cause after litigating so many ADA cases.

Hiring an attorney for the last three months of legal work would cost around $12,000 to $15,000. If the lawsuit had stretched until a scheduled nonjury trial in October, the costs would be even higher. Plus, if Raye lost the trial, he’d need to cover the opposing attorney fees.

Raye’s case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Evans can’t sue him again, but another plaintiff could. He said he thinks complaints to the Florida Bar against Kravets, specifically mentioning his restaurant, applied pressure leading to the dismissal.

While the legal battle might be over for now, Raye said he wants to help educate as many people as he can about the ADA lawsuits. He’s already got two podcast interviews scheduled and intends to meet with U.S. Congresswoman Kat Cammack again to pursue changing the laws.

“This isn’t just about me. It’s about all these other businesses, you know?” he said. “If I just dropped everything, it would kind of defeat the purpose of fighting it.”

So, should he have taken the $6,000 settlement? Raye said no. Was the fight worth it? Raye also said no, but somebody has to do it.

“There’s no winning. There’s winning in a way. I mean, it feels like a win for sure—absolutely,” Raye said.