Gainesville business owners have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the past year following nearly identical lawsuits filed by local resident Makeda Evans.
Evans, 33, has sued 43 businesses with Alachua County locations, claiming their websites failed to abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). She has sued another six businesses located in Orlando, Ocala or Lake City with all the lawsuits occurring in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida—totaling 49 lawsuits.
So far, 26 of the defendants with Gainesville locations have signed confidential settlement agreements, keeping the full monetary impact hidden. Mainstreet only found one locally owned business able to exit the lawsuits, without a settlement, and 17 cases remain active.
In this story:
- 49 businesses sued
- Satchel’s Pizza responds to lawsuit
- Looking at the lawsuit
- Northwest Seafood owner calls it a legal scam
- Evan’s attorney supports ADA lawsuits
- A Gainesville attorney proposes a solution
- Businesses remain vulnerable
- List of all 49 businesses sued
First Magnitude Brewing Company, Adam’s Rib Co., Gainesville Health and Fitness, The TOP and Satchel’s Pizza have all been sued since September.
In the Millhopper Shopping Plaza off NW 23rd Avenue, Northwest Seafood was sued and settled, impacting bonuses for 25 employees and wiping out six months of income, management said.
Walk two doors down, and you find Uppercrust Bakery, which was also sued and settled in less than two months. Walk past Fresh Market to the other side of the plaza, and Flying Biscuit Cafe is serving up “moon dusted” potatoes. The cafe was also sued and settled.
At Celebration Pointe, Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille, MediCi Pizza and Tioga Dental and Orthodontics were sued, and all of the cases remain open.
Local business owners called the lawsuits predatory but agreed to settlements as the best course of action, and a Gainesville attorney said almost no business is safe from this type of lawsuit. But Satchel Raye, owner of Satchel’s Pizza, told Mainstreet he plans to fight the lawsuit filed against his restaurant despite the tough legal battle.
“I am not going to settle because I don’t like the tactics,” he said.
South Florida lawyer Aleksandra Kravets serves as the attorney for Evans, who is blind, according to the lawsuits.
Kravets filed all 49 of Evans’ lawsuits, and in the last two years, she also filed 71 nearly carbon copy lawsuits in Florida’s Middle District and 88 in Florida’s Southern District. These lawsuits were all filed on behalf of three primary plaintiffs.
Kravets told Mainstreet that while gaining a bad reputation, the lawsuits help the disabled community, follow the legal recourse set for ADA and prevent unnavigable websites from being exponentially more rampant.
Satchel surprised by suit
Wanting to upgrade Satchel’s Pizza’s old website design from Squarespace into something more original, Raye decided to build a new one from scratch.
Not long after it went live this fall, Raye said an advertisement for legal counsel popped up. Then, an email landed in his inbox offering legal support.
“All of a sudden we get this advertisement and an email from a company, some lawyers, and they said you’ve been sued. We can help represent you in federal court,” he recalled.
Raye said he didn’t know a website could be built with features to assist the visually impaired—or that a business could be sued for not having them.
He reached out to a former employee and lawyer trying to learn more about the suit and ADA website requirements. Within 24 hours, Raye said the IT department and website builders made the Satchel’s Pizza website ADA compliant.
But the case had already been filed in federal court, and Raye still got sued, triggering the ongoing legal standoff.
“We’re not trying to not be compliant with ADA, [especially] in the case of a person who’s trying to access our restaurant and can’t eat at or enjoy it. That’s not what this is about,” he said. “We’re going to fight it.”
Raye said his fight against the lawsuit isn’t only to defend Satchel’s Pizza.
Evans had filed multiple lawsuits each month for over a year before targeting Satchel’s Pizza. But Raye was taken off guard by his suit, unaware of the plight of those other local business owners and alarmed at the number of suits.
Raye wants to start a conversation about compliance—both to aid the disabled community and protect business owners from thousands of dollars in what he says are frivolous attorney fees.
Since being served with the suit in April, management for one local restaurant told Mainstreet that the costs for bringing its website into ADA compliance, settling the suit and securing legal counsel have already reached $30,000.
If the other lawsuits cause similar costs, the 49 defendants would have spent $1.4 million because of the issue.
Legal nitty gritty
Each of the lawsuits follows the same pattern. Kravets establishes the legal foundation, and then introduces Evans, who was registered to vote in Broward County until switching to Alachua County in 2024.
The lawsuits detail her medical condition, and Kravets also states that Evans considers herself a “tester” to further rights of similarly situated disabled people. The lawsuits then relay how disabled people access websites through screen reading software that uses auditory cues.
Next, the script diverges as Kravets describes the business and how it had unique offerings Evans wanted to try.
But Evans claims website issues prevented her from learning about and taking part in the business, and the lawsuits said that had tangible impacts.
The most common issues included images with ambiguous, nondescriptive alternative text, texts within an image that failed to include alternative text, incorrect tabbing order, links opening a new tab without announcing the new tab, telephone numbers in plain instead of interactive text and no descriptive names on elements.
“The fact that Plaintiff could not communicate with or within the Website left Plaintiff feeling excluded, frustrated, and humiliated, and gave Plaintiff a sense of isolation and segregation, as Plaintiff is unable to participate in the same shopping experience, with the same access to the merchandise, sales, services, discounts, as provided at the Website and in the physical location as the non-visually disabled public,” each of the lawsuits said.
Kravets, who operates a one-person law firm from a residential neighborhood in Pembroke Pines, used the same outlines and wording for her lawsuits in Florida’s middle and southern federal courts.
The plaintiff, Evans, isn’t allowed to receive monetary damages from the settlements—though her lawyer and court costs are covered.
In Pensacola, plaintiff Alex Hawkins brought three new cases that have settled since September. The lawsuit uses similar language, saying Hawkins was left feeling isolated, frustrated and humiliated because of the website issues.
Hawkins’ attorney, Andrew Schertzer, has filed 140 other ADA cases in Florida’s federal courts—all in 2025.
Owner left reeling
Lee Deaderick took over ownership of Northwest Seafood in 1991, after the business was started a decade earlier by Scott Richardson. Deaderick called the lawsuit a straight scam, and he has strong words for the lawyers and plaintiffs involved.
“You’ve got, basically, thieves that are out there preying on the public and driving up the price, and nobody seems to really care,” Deaderick told Mainstreet.
He said the settlement wiped out six months of revenue for his business. That means working six more months before retirement, and it puts annual bonuses for 25 employees in question, Deaderick said.
When multiple national law firms reached out asking to represent him, Deaderick thought that was also a scam until the lawsuit from the court actually arrived.
The process left Deaderick disappointed across the board, especially that no one has stood up to end this type of lawsuit. He said he reached out to Rep. Kat Cammack, hoping that, with Floridian Pam Bondi serving as U.S. attorney general, the state’s representatives could take action and stop these “legalized scams.”
But Deaderick said he only got an automated response. Raye said he also intends to meet with Cammack and hopes other business owners would want to be involved.
Kravets defends lawsuits
Kravets told Mainstreet that the conversation around ADA website lawsuits is skewed.
“The industry sometimes gets a bad reputation because only one side is heard, and obviously that’s the side of the businesses getting sued,” Kravets said. “I think it’s important to hear the plaintiff’s perspective because the visually impaired do suffer rampant discrimination online, and oftentimes daily on numerous occasions.”
Kravets started on ADA website work around two years ago. She said the large-scale inaccessibility caused her to start taking the cases.
The internet allows more connection than ever, but as it becomes an almost required component of daily life, Kravets said the disabled community gets left behind if businesses fail to follow the law and make their websites substantially compliant with accessibility norms.
“Due to this rampant inaccessibility and the harm that’s caused to blind people daily, some blind users of the internet want justice, and that’s exactly what I do,” Kravets said. “I help bring them justice, and the Americans with Disabilities Act exists for this very reason.”
Kravets said the settlement values are the lowest out of any federal litigation field. She declined to give an average dollar range for this type of settlement, citing nondisclosure agreements.
Kravets said the confidential settlements are wanted by both parties to prevent the abuse of the information, which she said is no one’s goal.
Local attorney recommends fix
Gainesville attorney Gary Edinger defended Northwest Seafood, Sandy’s Consignment Boutique and the former owner of David’s BBQ against lawsuits by Evans.
He told Mainstreet settlements are almost a forced option for businesses hit with these ADA website compliance lawsuits.
“Once in a while they’re defensible, but in most circumstances, you just have to pay it out and treat it as a cost of doing business,” he said.
The lawsuits frustrating to deal with, Edinger said, especially as a local who patrons these businesses. And he doubts if Evans truly plans to patronize these businesses after the lawsuits.
If the purpose of the lawsuits is to improve accessibility and to make Evans an able customer, Edinger said a better solution would be a pre-suit notice letter pointing out the website issues and asking the businesses to fix them. If a business refuses, then serve a lawsuit, he said.
This type of early notice is already required in some employment discrimination cases and personal injury claims.
Kravets downplayed Edinger’s potential solution. She said pre-suit notices can be ignored and that there’s a reason the current law doesn’t require it.
“I know that in many instances, when notice was sent, it just fell on deaf ears, and that just prolongs the process of getting the site fixed,” Kravets said.
Lawsuits pinpoint details
Edinger said these ADA lawsuits often focus on nitpicky issues. He said sites are likely identified with software programs.
These websites don’t typically just ignore ADA rules, and some local businesses have entire staff positions or contracted companies that routinely update website compliance and issues.
Gainesville Health and Fitness (GHF) senior director of marketing Debbie Lee said the gym hires an outside third party specifically for monitoring its ADA compliance.
The outsourced team provides monthly reports on how GHF measures up to changing compliance requirements across the fitness center’s platforms, including its website, podcast and YouTube channel.
Even with the team, GHF still got sued by Evans.
Kravets said Evans finds the websites just like anyone searching for places to eat and businesses to frequent. She said having websites brings big benefits to businesses, but that also means making it accessible to everyone.
When asked if any software is used that specifically searches for website non-compliance, Kravets said she didn’t understand the question and began to end the interview.
“It’s an extra step,” Kravets said. “It’s a hurdle for a business, but that doesn’t mean that it should not be done for the business.”
Lee said GHF never intends to disenfranchise anyone and said the company will spend the money needed to make sure it is perpetually compliant.
“You can’t do compliance once,” she said. “We are and will continue to work with experts, like how you have to for all parts of your business.”
Kravets said the current law standard is not easy to meet. Businesses must stay on top of changes to the standards and make sure each website update meets guidelines.
While businesses may hire these outside companies or use artificial intelligence software to reach compliance, Kravets said that’s just a starter. These tests, she said, don’t provide a 100% backing that a blind user will be able to navigate the site.
She said businesses should actually have blind users test the site. Whether that’s practical or not, Kravets said she can’t answer that.
Edinger said sometimes the specifics of a certain case allow for a defense. But once filed, businesses have few options and must choose from a quick settlement or a long legal back and forth.
“If you fight back against it, you only make those attorneys’ fees go higher and the ultimate amount that you pay is going to be more,” Edinger said. “There’s this enormous incentive on the victimized businesses to simply settle right at the beginning of the litigation.”
Of the cases filed by Evans in the Northern District, only four have been dismissed without settlements.
Edinger said succeeding with this type of lawsuit used to be tough, but recent changes in federal law and court cases turned the tide. The number of ADA website filings then started to increase, he said.
Until new landmark cases or a change in law, Gainesville and Florida businesses could remain vulnerable to ADA website compliance lawsuits. And for most owners, the pressure pushes toward a settlement.
“There’s nothing I can do, really, to help them other than to negotiate a graceful surrender,” he said.
All 49 businesses sued by Evans ordered newest to oldest. (Cities denote where the sued branch is located)
- Furniture Country (Gainesville): Active
- Manzil Indian Cuisine (Gainesville): Active
- Satchel’s Pizza (Gainesville): Active
- The Blanche Hotel (Lake City): Active
- Gainesville Health and Fitness (Gainesville): Active
- MidiCi – The Neapolitan Pizza Company (Gainesville): Active
- First Magnitude Brewing (Gainesville): Active
- Blockers Furniture and Carpets (Ocala): Active
- Adam’s Rib Co (Gainesville): Active
- Tioga Dental & Orthodontics (Gainesville): Active
- Taste Noodle House (Gainesville): Active
- Keke’s Breakfast Cafe (Gainesville): Notice of Settlement
- Uppercrust (Gainesville): Active
- The TOP (Gainesville): Active
- Token Ramen (Gainesville): Settled
- Las Margaritas (Gainesville): Active
- Dragonfly Sushi and Sake Company (Gainesville): Settled
- Gumby’s Pizza (Gainesville): Settle
- El Indio Mexican Food (Gainesville): Notice of Settlement
- Pinspiration (Gainesville): Settled
- Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille (Gainesville): Settled
- Pet Paradise (Gainesville): Settled
- Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille (Gainesville): Active
- Flying Biscuit Franchising (Gainesville): Settled
- Arashi Yama Sushi & Hibachi (Gainesville): Settled
- Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe (Gainesville): Settled
- GatorTec (Gainesville): Dismissed
- V Pizza & Sidecar (Gainesville): Settled
- Beque Holic (Gainesville): Settled
- Sandys Consignment Boutique (Gainesville): Settled
- Ellianos Coffee (Gainesville): Settled
- Brittanys Fine Jewelry (Gainesville): Settled
- Pretty Nail Spa (Gainesville): Settled
- Yummy House (Gainesville): Settled
- Northwest Seafood (Gainesville): Settled
- Dick Mondell’s (Gainesville): Settled
- Raining Berries (Gainesville): Settled
- Las Carretas Mexican Restaurant (Gainesville): Settled
- Mi Apa Latin Cafe (Gainesville): Settled
- Buff City Soap Supply (Gainesville): Dismissed
- Bolay Enterprises (Gainesville): Settled
- David’s BBQ and Catering (Gainesville): Settled
- Pure Aesthetics (Gainesville): Settled
- Orlando Watch Company (Orlando): Settlement
- Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza (Gainesville): Settled
- Oaks Pawn (Gainesville): Settled
- Rosen Hotels and Resorts (Orlando): Settled
- Grove Resort & Spa (Orlando): Dismissed
- Margaritaville Enterprises (Kissimmee): Dismissed
How can this woman do this without giving notice or warning to be compliant or s suit will follow? This is totally unfair and not respecting the rights or livelihood of the business owners. She should have some consequences to her action.
Lawyer Scum. this stuff is the downside of ADA.
Great reporting!
A massive flurry of ADA lawsuits, followed up by a targeted ad to defend the people named in the same suit sounds like fraud. Attorney’s are a special breed of human. I’m sure not all of them would sell their souls for a buck, but they wlll certainly make law-abiding people miserable.
That’s really sad and upsetting that businesses are seemingly targeted in such a way without a notice to comply first. It does make it sound like a predatory scam and not really in the best interests of the blind person first but rather what money can be made. It even seems predatory on the blind person, really, using them as an excuse to sue over a website detail. Also, what role do the hosting platform companies play in ensuring websites comply with all the many necessary compliances?
Hosting platforms do not offer ADA compliance. Any and all compliance is up to the person making the site. Squarespace sites aren’t automatically complaint. We would have to write code to insert to make text options and such. Unless something changes, this will be a legal way to extort tens of thousands of dollars for basically any website they want to go after. I’m still waiting to hear back from Representative Cammack’s team about meeting to discuss this issue.
“Extort” sounds correct.
Thank you for fighting this injustice. It is hard enough for restaurants to make it these days without having to settle frivolous lawsuits like this. And every place I see listed as a target of these lawsuits that I have ever been to offers very good-excellent customer service, and would likely have complied with correcting whatever reasonable ADA regs were brought to their attention, if they had received a warning and maybe 60 days notice. It is unfortunate that this woman moved to our area. One question-is this a federal issue only, or both a state and federal issue? It sounds like legislation is needed ASAP, and the FL legislative session starts next month… I am going to call Kat Cammack’s office to tell her that her constituents expect her to meet with them when something like this is happening, and she needs to meet with you ASAP!
Satchel, let our community know how we can be of help. Janice
Kat Cammack seems to be our best bet right now. Reaching out with the subject of ada compliance scam might start to register. They do get our requests.
I called her DC and GNV office and forwarded her this MSDN story and told her she needs to meet with you ASAP and work on getting justice for all these businesses.
I’m in as well. If I can help, let me know!!
I understand making things work for the disabled, but it’s funny how the clients aren’t making a dime, the lawyers are! I agree that a pre-notice warning should be required before a lawsuit can happen. I believe most business owners would make it happen. The timely manner of things getting done as an excuse to sue the businesses without warning to fix the problem within a certain period of time, shows the lawyer’s character and willingness to abuse a system for personal gain. sadly the lawmakers are lawyers so what do we expect! This lawyer doesn’t care about her client, she’s all about using the client to make money, not to make things right for her client. She’s targeting as many businesses as she can before she gets shut down, and I hope this article helps to get her shut down quickly!! Praying you find a loop hole and solution that shuts this attorney down Satchel!!
Evans and her attorneys should be ashamed of themselves, but they clearly aren’t. As such, they should be ostracized from society, and preferably jailed. They are not welcome here.
Always someone looking for a quick buck by degrading the rest of humanity around them
Thank you for the hard work and excellent reporting, Lillian and Seth, to expose the extent, impact, and background of this monetary weaponization of legal fine print. Small businesses have more than enough challenges already just staying afloat in this era of economic turmoil, corporatization, and concentration of wealth and ownership. Kudos to business owners and ethical attorneys seeking to end the exploitation.
It sounds like there’s a step missing. Just like there are health inspectors for restaurants, I think some part of the ADA compliance should look into compliance via inspections, then issue warnings and then fines if the business remains out of compliance.
Leaving it in the hands of private law firms to sue and settle is just another way for some firms to make money at the expense of the actual consumers at these businesses.
I imagine that these businesses which are not large chains have a hard time keeping up not only with this ADA issue, but with the rest of the (necessary) government regulations. It’s complicated.
What a joke! It’s not the website owner’s responsibility to let blind people read their sites. It’s the blind person’s devices that should read aloud the contents. I’d sue the plaintiff and get the money back, and send the lawyer to the Fla. Bar Association for action 👿💩👹
There is a wish to bring this up to the Bar. Anyone know that protocol?
A blind person’s assistive reading device can I read the website unless the website is properly coded for the device to do so. ADA regulations are designed to build websites that can be read by that technology.
Is this woman now going to patronize all these businesses that she has sued after they make their websites “blind compatible”(?) Then, what is the point? What are her damages? She’s punishing these businesses and their employees and customers for absolutely nothing. How can this be legal? Prices will soar to cover their losses. They should all fight back and counter sue. They were not given a chance to rectify the “problem”, punished before they were even aware of something being wrong. I want to know what her “damages” were. The damages she is causing our businesses and their employees and patrons far outweighs any possible damage caused by websites not being up to code or whatever.
I wonder who she will go after next! There’s plenty of targets out there to get rich off of! Is there anyone out there who can help out businesses against these scammers?
I get that feeling.
The one to fight against this sort of situation, is a lawyer. I don’t know many but I’ve heard they ain’t cheap. So if somebody wanted to really go after this, get together a lot of victims, find the right man or woman to frame the case legally, as RICO, or God only knows… And counter sue and build the case…
Well that person would be insane right? They would need to have a ton of money to burn, and enjoy sueing the blind person and the lawyers involved in a scheme (that investigation will determine…)
The only hope is sharing the story in hopes that some big time law firm is looking for pro bono work to defend small businesses in frivolous lawsuits, and they happen to hear about this on tiktok. Do lawyers look at tiktok?
I mean:
They read it on the Main Street Daily News.
How are these lawsuits making up for the clients supposed losses if all the money is going to the lawyers.
Her lawyers are who should be sued. They clearly are using her to make money.
There are plenty of ways to have accessibility issues for people with disabilities corrected before suing!!
These lawyers should be disbarred.
The woman is just another lawsuit shark. They’re leeches on human society who add nothing of value back and survive on completely frivolous lawsuits.
Keep up the good work, Lillian and Seth. These businesses truly are iconic in Gainesville and are a part of the culture that makes us a great place to live. In following comments from other readers, let’s all call Rep Kat Cammack’s office and ask for her help in stopping thisgpractice that benefits two people and hurts many. Here’s the contact info: Representative Kat Cammack: (202) 225-5744; https://cammack.house.gov/zip_authentication?form=/contact/email-me
Thank you. Yes. Action is the best way to turn the tide back to sanity. I have several emails in to the Cammack team and I sent this very article as soon as I read it. Raising awareness is the first step towards making change to stop this extortion from small businesses, not just in Alachua county, but small businesses all over Florida. Media attention to these things is helpful, cheers to MSDN.
Question: if the plaintiff cannot receive damages and the lawyer is only getting associated costs, where is the rest of the money going? NW Seafood alone states they lost 6 months of profit.
The money goes to the lawyer you hire to settle the case, and mostly to the lawyer for the plaintiff to “settle” the case.
An outrageous, and by all accounts, legal scam. At one point in the article I thought it said the plaintiff can’t receive damages. If so, how is this working?
I think that would be the job of the private investigator. I mean, there’s obviously some motive and is she moving around to all the counties just to see how the websites are behaving? The attorney must know her client pretty well by now. But yes, the plaintiff isn’t supposed to receive damages which begs the questions you pose.
Let me know if I can help. My Engineering Firm specializes in Defense Litigation Support across the South.
Thank you. Please send contact info to satchelsgville@gmail.com
That is ADA Defense Litigation Support.
I would think you have to show harm first and obviously she has not been harmed
That’s why they’re using the lawsuits as threats to scare companies to settle out of court. It’s literally exortion
Even if she was harmed, which her lawyer claims that she was, the client isn’t getting anything from the lawsuit, only the lawyers are. So how does that fix the harm to client?
this was excellent reporting. wow! all my life I’ve been an advocate for people with disabilities, still am, always will be. truth be told, many businesses have winked at ADA requirements, this however does feel like a scam. the plaintive doesn’t get any of the settlement, but that attorney must be cashing in. and from a one person office!
Great investigative journalism! I just complained to Kat Cammack.
I find it VERY hard to believe that the plaintiff is not receiving some kind of compensation from these frivolous lawsuits. This needs to be investigated. A good private investigator might be able to get the ball rolling by finding a money trail to either the plaintiff or someone close to her.
This attorney is stealing money from our community! Millions of dollars from Gainesville’s hard-working local businesses. This list is pretty close to EVERY locally-owned restaurant. How many of us could afford to fork out $10,000 or more to settle something like this?
Wow what a mess. I would just caution anyone contacting reps to stress that we do actually support ADA laws, and maybe suggest there be a rectifying period and resources for businesses to come into compliance instead of how unfair the laws are. I don’t trust McCammack at all, and feel like she’ll just use this as an excuse to try to repeal the ADA altogether.
A navigable website that plays nicely with screen readers is important so everyone has access and knows how they can interact with a business, but they’re also difficult to maintain and to keep up with all the changing tech. Places that stay up with it typically hire out firms to do that work for them, and small businesses can’t afford that expense. Small business owners are managing a lot of other skillsets, and aren’t coders, lol.
Several years ago, a medical office employee told me there was a woman coming around in G-ville asking to use the restroom. Then she would file an ADA law suit regarding the restroom. More logical than filing against a flipping website NOT being ADA compatible.
My organization GNV.AI will donate free ADA compliance updates for local Gainesville websites. Please visit our website and fill out the contact form to get the process started.
This needs to be fixed at both the state and federal level. Why is there no warning and time given to get things fixed? We are not talking about a bathroom or an entrance that would be a physical and immediate danger, but about something that would be a nuisance. It is also about the technology available – website readers cannot read tables or lists unless they are formatted properly. So why isn’t the technology improved? This will affect also education at ALL levels.
So out of fear we are going to stop doing things because some tort lawyers have bots searching for webpages that are out of compliance and file suit within a day. And sometimes convince a disabled person that if they go along with it they would be doing a big service to the thousands of affected disabled people whose lives will be irreparably damaged if a website is not compliant – and fixing it is not good; so they need to “punish” owners and employees to “teach them a lesson”. Of course, I am being sarcastic because I saw this before. And who will they be coming next for?
Seems sketchy that the plaintiff is only targeting locally owned businesses. I wonder if the websites for chains such as Wal-mart, Publix, Wal-greens, Cheesecake Factory, etc are ADA compliant.