Highlights

A jury deliberated just 14 minutes before rejecting a demand by a disabled man for over $100,000 alleging that Jack In The Box had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”) (Marquez v. Jack In the Box, Inc., Case No. BC384442).

Plaintiff Luis Marquez, a paraplegic, alleged that his civil rights were violated and that he was humiliated on over 100 visits to a Los Angeles Jack In The Box. Marquez asked the jury to award him at least $100,000 in damages, as well as several hundred thousand dollars in attorneys’ fees. 

Marquez’s claims quickly disintegrated, however, when Mr. Marquez admitted that he had learned from his attorney that he could earn larger settlements in disability lawsuits if he claimed to experience discrimination at the same restaurant “hundreds and hundreds of times.”

After deliberating just 14 minutes, the jury rejected Mr. Marquez’s claims. One juror noted that Mr. Marquez’s story was “unbelievable” and that the lawsuit was “just a shakedown.”