Overview
This page walks through an ADA website lawsuit from beginning to end, with typical timings. Knowing the sequence removes most of the panic, because at every stage the next step is predictable.
If you just received a letter, the immediate to-do list is in how to defend an ADA lawsuit. Read that first, then come back.
The timeline
Weeks before you know anything: the scan. A serial plaintiff’s firm scans stores with automated tools, then verifies the hits by hand with a screen reader. Your store is chosen because something failed loudly, usually items from the common failures list. At this stage you have no idea you are on a list.
Day 0: the demand letter or complaint arrives. Some firms send a demand letter first and offer to settle quietly. Others file in federal court immediately and let the summons be your first notice. Both paths are routine for the firm sending them.
Days 1 to 14: you lawyer up. You have 21 days after service to respond to a federal complaint. Your lawyer’s first moves: assess the claims, order an independent audit (see what a real audit looks like), and open settlement talks. The audit matters because you need your own picture of the facts, not just the plaintiff’s screenshots.
Months 1 to 3: negotiation. Most cases live here. The plaintiff’s firm has a standard settlement template and a standard number. The number moves based on how bad your site actually is and how fast you are fixing it. Documented progress is leverage, as covered in settlement amounts.
Months 3 to 9: settlement. The agreement typically includes a payment, a WCAG 2.1 AA deadline set 6 to 18 months out, and often independent verification plus a monitoring period of one to three years.
After settlement: the work. Now you do the remediation anyway, on a court-shaped deadline, with re-audits to prove it. This is the fact worth sitting with: every path through the timeline ends with you fixing the site. Prevention just skips the expensive stages in the middle.
The rare long road. If you fight through motions, discovery, and trial, add one to two years and multiples of the cost. Domino’s is the cautionary tale: years of litigation, a Supreme Court cert denial in 2019, and the underlying case still had to be resolved after all of it.
Example
A home-goods store is served in March. Their lawyer responds within the deadline, an audit lands in April documenting 23 issues, and remediation starts immediately. By June the store settles: $18,000, WCAG 2.1 AA within 12 months, one verification audit. Because remediation was already half done during negotiation, the settlement number came in lower than the firm’s opening demand, and verification passes in October. Total elapsed: seven months from summons to closed file.
What to do with this timeline
If you are reading this before any letter arrives, the timeline is a to-do list in reverse. Every stage exists because a store had fixable problems and no documentation. Run the self-check, fix the checkout path first, and get an audit on file. The stages then have nothing to attach to.
Common mistake
Ignoring the letter because your store is small or the whole thing looks like a scam. The deadlines are real, default judgments are worse than any settlement, and the filer’s firm has done this hundreds of times. Verify the case number on the court’s public docket, then get counsel the same week.