Tiffany Bond  🦞 🇺🇸Verified account

A stay of discovery is often not appropriate in mediation/ADR. Discovery is where you exchange documents related to the case. It certainly can get expensive to do so..it also provides necessary information to be able to fully mediate a case.

I don't think federal law should specify that discovery is stayed, and certainly not before the ADR process is developed. The benefit for this is almost entirely to the owner/operator. It gives them the ability to hide documents that would show bad behavior during mediation.

The disabled person would *want* to show their attempts to rectify the situation. The owner/operator would *not want* to be compelled to show that information, particularly if they are acting in bad faith.

They *might* have a public comment period, or not, and we don't know for how long, where, how, or if this information will be available. Seriously, WHO WROTE THIS? It's written like YA fiction, all light and fluffy but to make you feel like you are reading a deep book.

The last few sentences make it clear to me this bill really protects repeat offenders and puts the burden on the disabled. Mediation is less costly, but also less public. Very little is published from mediation, which is generally confidential.

It also looks like the process will require determining "relevant facts" & "steps taken before the commencement of litigation"...which loosely translates into these cases taking a really, really, REALLY long time, where the disabled person is denied access & has the most burden.

Final thoughts - this bill inflicts a *lot* of damage for 4 substantive pages. It's sloppy and light, with the lack of specificity to the detriment of those in society who can least afford it. If your legislator voted for this, call them and ask why. It's a bad bill.

You have a representative who did not read, does not understand unintended consequences of legislation, or *wants* this. All of those are problems. There is nothing urgent about this 1990 law needing repair so desperately as to cause such sloppy work.