Potter Handy, the law firm known for filing thousands of lawsuits in the Bay Area alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, appears to have largely stopped filing new cases after being sued last month by the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A Bay City News analysis found that in 2021, the firm filed a total of 2,076 ADA lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, representing 85 percent of all ADA filings in the district that year.

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Joe Dworetzky is a second career journalist. He practiced law in Philadelphia for more than 35 years, representing private and governmental clients in commercial litigation and insolvency proceedings. Joe served as City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Ed Rendell and from 2009 to 2013 was one of five members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission with responsibility for managing the city’s 250 public schools. He moved to San Francisco in 2011 and began writing fiction and pursuing a lifelong interest in editorial cartooning. Joe earned a Master’s in Journalism from Stanford University in 2020. He covers Legal Affairs and writes long form Investigative stories. His occasional cartooning can be seen in Bay Area Sketchbook. Joe encourages readers to email him story ideas and leads at joe.dworetzky@baycitynews.com.