SB 84 Heads to Key Senate Vote—A Crucial Test for California Small Businesses

By Victor Gomez, Executive Director, California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse

Next week, California lawmakers will have another opportunity to advance a bill that could drastically improve the landscape for small business owners across the state. Senate Bill 84, which recently cleared the Senate Judiciary and Senate Appropriations Committees, will have the chance to move from the Senate to the State Assembly for its passage. This development marks another critical hurdle for a bill that if enacted, will ease the burden that lawsuit abuse has on our local small businesses.

At its core, SB 84 is a common-sense proposal aimed to curb predatory lawsuits that exploit the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If passed, the bill would give small businesses—those with 50 or fewer employees—a 120-day window to correct alleged accessibility violations before a lawsuit could be filed. This simple reform could dramatically reduce the number of frivolous, costly legal actions that continue to threaten mom-and-pop shops across our state.

The bill is not about rolling back ADA protections. It’s inherently about fairness. Thousands of small business owners support the goals of the ADA and are eager to comply—but too often, they’re blindsided by lawsuits dealing with technical infractions they never knew existed in the first place. Instead of being given time to address the issue, they’re dragged into court and forced to pay settlements many can’t afford.

These lawsuits don’t just hurt our business owners. They close community institutions, cost jobs, and discourage new investment in our neighborhoods. They also discredit the real purpose of accessibility laws by turning them into tools for personal profit rather than public good.

Last year, a similar bill—SB 585—died in the Assembly without even receiving a hearing. That can’t happen again. For the sake of all our small business communities across the state, SB 84 must become law in 2025.

With the full California State Senate poised to take up this bill in just a few short days, this is a test of whether California’s elected officials are serious about supporting small businesses—or wish to remain content with letting them be sued into submission. We ask that our senators stand up for both accessibility and economic fairness and vote SB 84 through the Senate and onward to the Assembly.