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Federal-court filings in Florida exploded in 2024–2025 as plaintiffs' firms shifted activity from California. Eleventh-Circuit precedent on website accessibility remains contested.
Statute: Florida Civil Rights Act (Fla. Stat. § 760)
Compensatory damages and attorneys' fees under FCRA. No California-style statutory minimum.
WCAG 2.1 AA in settlement agreements and court orders — though the underlying public-accommodations status is still contested in the Eleventh Circuit.
Federal ADA still applies in addition to Florida state law.
Florida ranks #2 in the country for federal website-accessibility lawsuit filings. Even though the Eleventh Circuit's Gil v. Winn-Dixie reversal (2021) narrowed the legal theory in that circuit, plaintiffs continue to file under both federal ADA and the Florida Civil Rights Act, particularly where a website has a strong nexus to a physical place of public accommodation.
Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores (11th Cir. 2021) held that a standalone website is not a 'place of public accommodation' under Title III. The opinion did not foreclose claims tied to physical stores, and plaintiffs continue to file by alleging website-store nexus.
Florida federal courts saw nearly 1,000 website-accessibility filings in 2025. Most settle. Defendants increasingly raise standing and Eleventh-Circuit precedent at the motion-to-dismiss stage.
FCRA generally tracks the ADA but is enforced through the Florida Commission on Human Relations and state courts. Some plaintiffs have used FCRA to pursue claims that struggled under post-Gil ADA case law.
Whatever the local statute says, the technical baseline is WCAG 2.1 AA. A 60-second axe-core scan will tell you where you stand.
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