Law firm website compliance: the ADA, wiretap suits and intake pages
Why law offices are squarely covered by the ADA, what SB 690 did and didn't change, and the intake-page fixes that matter.
Key takeaways
- The ADA names the office of a lawyer, so firms get demand letters like any other business.
- SB 690 leaves wiretap claims over chat, pixels and session replay at $5,000 per violation.
Law offices are named in the statute
Title III lists the "office of an accountant or lawyer" (opens in a new tab) as a public accommodation, and the Justice Department's 2022 guidance (opens in a new tab) covers online services. Courts and settlements use WCAG as the benchmark.
How often small firms get sued
Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website accessibility suits in 2025, up 27%. 64% of defendants had under $25 million in revenue, and 45% had been sued before.
Wiretap claims after SB 690
SB 690, effective January 1, 2027 (opens in a new tab), leaves Section 631 wiretap claims and Sections 632 and 632.7 eavesdropping claims open to private plaintiffs.
Intake pages need the most care
- Label every field, name every button and caption attorney videos.
- Keep trackers off intake, chat and sensitive practice-area pages, and hold the rest until consent.
- Know what your chat vendor records, since wiretap suits target chat widgets.
- Mind generative tools: ABA Formal Opinion 512 (opens in a new tab) requires informed consent before client information goes into one.
ComplyMo holds trackers until consent and ranks accessibility fixes on Growth and up; it doesn't review ethics or advertising rules. See ComplyMo for law firms.
Does the CCPA reach your firm?
Only if it meets one test: about $26.6 million in revenue, 100,000 California consumers (ad pixels count), or half of revenue from selling or sharing data. Connecticut and Rhode Island start at 35,000 consumers.
General information, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with counsel.