accessibility glossary

Unruh Civil Rights Act

The Unruh Civil Rights Act is a California state law that, per Civil Code Section 51(f), treats any violation of the federal ADA as also being a violation of Unruh, giving California plaintiffs a state-law path to statutory damages.

Where the ADA itself doesn’t provide for monetary damages in most cases, Unruh does: a successful claim carries a statutory minimum of $4,000 per violation under California Civil Code Section 52(a), which is a major reason California accounts for a disproportionate share of U.S. web accessibility lawsuits.

Because Unruh is explicitly linked to ADA violations, an inaccessible website that would already create ADA Title III exposure typically creates Unruh exposure as well for any business connected to California, regardless of where the company itself is headquartered.

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