Should I respond directly to the attorney who sent the ADA demand letter?

No. Do not call or email the plaintiff or their law firm before retaining counsel or preparing a structured written response. Anything you say can be used as an admission of liability. Preserve the evidence, run your own audit, and respond in writing within seven to fourteen days.

How long do I have to respond to an ADA website demand letter?

Most demand letters set a fourteen to thirty day deadline. The postmark date on the certified mail sets your clock. Sending a response within the first two weeks, even if it is a specificity-requesting reply rather than a settlement, is the operational standard.

Will installing an accessibility overlay make the demand letter go away?

No. The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against overlay vendors for false claims. Courts have declined to accept overlay presence as a defense. Plaintiff firms cite overlay installation as evidence of awareness combined with non-remediation. Installing one makes your position worse, not better.

Do I need a lawyer for every ADA website demand letter?

Not for most volume-filing demand letters under twenty-five thousand dollars. A structured response that asks for specifics about the plaintiff's actual use of your site is often enough to slow the letter. Retain counsel if the demand exceeds twenty-five thousand, cites filing within fewer than thirty days, or is a second letter.

What is a good-faith effort defense under Title III of the ADA?

A documented, ongoing accessibility program that predates the demand letter. Courts weigh a written accessibility policy, a published accessibility statement, dated audits, a remediation log, training records, and a responsive feedback channel. The 2020 Kroger case established the factors.

Demand Letters

Received an ADA Website Demand Letter. What to Do Next.

You opened a certified envelope and your website is the problem. Here is the actual sequence, in order, from hour zero to day thirty.

Published by Startvest LLC SDVOSBApril 17, 20266 min read

A demand letter landed. Your website is accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. Your first instinct is to panic, call a lawyer, or pay the settlement to make it go away. Do none of those things yet.

This is a checklist. In order. From the hour the letter arrives to the end of week four.

The first hour

Step 1. Do not reply. Do not email the sender. Do not call the attorney listed on the letter. Anything you say or write becomes evidence.

Step 2. Save the letter. Scan it. Note the postmark date and the certified mail tracking number. Put the physical copy in a folder. The postmark sets your response clock. See the ADA Title III statute for the federal framework.

Step 3. Screenshot your website as it exists right now. Every page cited in the letter. Every page cited by implication. The plaintiff will try to fix your site's state in time. Your screenshots lock it in for your side.

The first day

Read the letter twice. You are looking for four things.

The specific WCAG success criteria alleged to be violated. Most letters cite WCAG 2.1 AA. Some cite WCAG 2.0. Note which.
The specific pages or features alleged to be inaccessible. "Your entire website" is not specific. A checkout flow or a contact form is.
The relief demanded. Usually money, usually in the five figures. Sometimes plus "remediation."
The deadline. Usually fourteen to thirty days.

If any of the four are vague, that is useful. Vagueness is a sign of a volume operation.

The first week

Run your own accessibility audit. Not a report from an overlay vendor. A real audit.

Use axe DevTools or WAVE in Chrome. Open the pages the letter names. Record every violation. Take screenshots of the browser panel with the violation highlighted.

This serves two purposes. It tells you whether the letter's claims are accurate. And it establishes that you investigated in good faith within days of receiving notice. That is the first brick in your good faith documentation.

If the audit confirms violations, start a remediation log. Date. Violation. Action taken. Engineer who did it. The log itself is evidence later. The full ADA compliance documentation checklist is the complete version of what to keep.

If the audit does not confirm the letter's claims, save the audit results. You may need to demonstrate that the plaintiff's allegations were not grounded.

The second week

Send the response. Not a settlement offer. A response.

A proper demand letter response does four things. It acknowledges receipt without admitting liability. It cites your existing accessibility statement or commits to publishing one. It describes the remediation work already underway with dates. It asks for specific details the letter omitted, such as the plaintiff's actual attempt to use the site and what assistive technology they used.

The request for specifics is not rhetorical. Courts have dismissed cases where the plaintiff could not describe what they actually tried to do on the site. A letter that answers "the entire website was inaccessible" to the question of "which pages did you try to use" is weaker than one that names specific pages and steps.

You can write the response yourself. Many SMBs do. The template is structured for exactly this purpose, with a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown of why each section is worded that way.

If the amount demanded is small enough that a counsel fee would exceed it, self-responding is usually the right call. If the demand is above twenty-five thousand dollars, retain counsel who has defended ADA Title III claims. Not a general small business attorney. Someone who has actually been in a Title III case.

The third and fourth weeks

Build the paper trail that matters if this becomes a lawsuit.

Publish an accessibility statement. Not a boilerplate one. A specific one that describes your conformance target, your known limitations, and how a user can report accessibility problems. The W3C has a template that is a good starting point. Avoid overclaims. An accessibility statement that promises full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance when your site does not meet it is an invitation for a follow-up claim.

Document your remediation work. Every commit. Every ticket. Every vendor conversation. A remediation log is the single most valuable piece of evidence if you end up in front of a judge.

Train the team that maintains the site. Even one hour. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has free training material. Record attendance. Keep the training materials. Courts look favorably on ongoing operational practices, not just reactive fixes.

Schedule a follow-up audit in ninety days. Put it on the calendar. Accessibility work is never done. The gap between "we fixed that page once" and "we have an ongoing program" is what separates a successful good faith defense from a losing one.

What not to do

Do not install an overlay widget. The accessibility overlay market is a multi-vendor industry that promises a JavaScript fix for ADA compliance. It does not work. The Federal Trade Commission settled with accessiBe in 2025 over misleading ADA compliance claims. Plaintiff's attorneys know how to defeat overlays. Installing one does not make you compliant, and at this point it may actually signal that you are trying to fake compliance, which is worse than not having tried. We cover why overlays do not work in more depth.

Do not post a public statement blaming the plaintiff or characterizing the letter. It does not help your case and it can be used against you.

Do not ignore the letter and hope it goes away. A percentage of demand letters are from volume filers who may not follow through. A percentage escalate to federal court filings within sixty days. You cannot tell which is which by looking at the letter. The cost of responding properly is one to three thousand dollars of internal time. The cost of being sued is forty thousand and up.

Do not pay the settlement without doing any of this. If you settle and sign a release, you have probably solved this specific letter. You have also given the plaintiff's firm a data point that says you will pay. Some firms keep a list. See our lawsuit cost breakdown for the full stage-by-stage math.

One more thing

Some business owners read through the letter, get overwhelmed, and do nothing. Do not be one of them. A sub-optimal response sent on day ten is better than silence that rolls into day thirty. The response template below is structured so that even a rushed version hits the four things the record needs. Lean toward action.

The short version

Screenshot everything. Run your own audit. Send a response that asks for specifics rather than admits liability. Publish an accessibility statement. Document your remediation work. Train someone. Schedule a follow-up.

This is not legal advice. It is the operational checklist for the first thirty days after a demand letter lands. For legal advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction who has handled ADA Title III matters.

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Frequently asked questions

Should I respond directly to the attorney who sent the ADA demand letter?: No. Do not call or email the plaintiff or their law firm before retaining counsel or preparing a structured written response. Anything you say can be used as an admission of liability. Preserve the evidence, run your own audit, and respond in writing within seven to fourteen days.
How long do I have to respond to an ADA website demand letter?: Most demand letters set a fourteen to thirty day deadline. The postmark date on the certified mail sets your clock. Sending a response within the first two weeks, even if it is a specificity-requesting reply rather than a settlement, is the operational standard.
Will installing an accessibility overlay make the demand letter go away?: No. The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against overlay vendors for false claims. Courts have declined to accept overlay presence as a defense. Plaintiff firms cite overlay installation as evidence of awareness combined with non-remediation. Installing one makes your position worse, not better.
Do I need a lawyer for every ADA website demand letter?: Not for most volume-filing demand letters under twenty-five thousand dollars. A structured response that asks for specifics about the plaintiff's actual use of your site is often enough to slow the letter. Retain counsel if the demand exceeds twenty-five thousand, cites filing within fewer than thirty days, or is a second letter.
What is a good-faith effort defense under Title III of the ADA?: A documented, ongoing accessibility program that predates the demand letter. Courts weigh a written accessibility policy, a published accessibility statement, dated audits, a remediation log, training records, and a responsive feedback channel. The 2020 Kroger case established the factors.