State-specific guide for Michigan small business owners on ADA website accessibility lawsuits. Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL § 37.1602). 460 tracked filings in the last 12 months (Seyfarth ADA Title III Tracker (2025 annual)). SMB defendants are at risk; here is what to do.
Run a free WCAG 2.1 AA scan in 60 seconds against your Michigan business site. ADA Title III filings in Michigan run from a few thousand to a few thousand per year — plaintiff firms scout SMB sites weekly.
Michigan receives around 460 ADA Title III website filings a year, concentrated in the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint) and the Western District (Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo). The plaintiff pipeline is mid-density, with federal Title III claims and Elliott-Larsen overlap. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL § 37.1602) covers disability discrimination in public accommodations and damages include actual plus punitive for willful violations. MI SMB settlements typically run $12,000–$35,000. Independent bike retailers, dental practices, and fitness studios are the most-targeted vertical cohort.
The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL § 37.1602) covers disability discrimination in public accommodations. MI courts have confirmed that Elliott-Larsen's public-accommodation language covers commercial websites used by Michigan consumers. Elliott-Larsen damages include actual damages plus punitive damages for willful violations; most settlements resolve well below punitive amounts, but the availability of punitive damages increases settlement pressure. Federal ADA Title III continues to apply in parallel, capped at injunctive relief plus attorney's fees. The WCAG 2.1 AA standard the federal DOJ formally recognized in 2024 governs the substantive compliance framework.
MCL § 37.1602 — Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Elliott-Larsen covers disability discrimination in public accommodations. MI courts have confirmed Elliott-Larsen applies to commercial websites. Damages include actual plus punitive for willful violations; stacked on top of federal Title III.
Damages profile: Punitive damages available for willful violations; most MI SMB settlements resolve at $12,000–$35,000.
Michigan accounted for roughly 460 tracked Title III filings in the most recent twelve-month period reported by the Seyfarth ADA Title III Tracker. The Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint) sees the largest share, followed by the Western District (Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo). Plaintiff firms in E.D. Mich. and W.D. Mich. file hundreds of nearly-identical complaints a month against Michigan-based SMBs. Independent bike retailers, dental and orthodontic practices, and fitness studios are the most-targeted vertical cohort in the Detroit-Ann Arbor corridor.
Three illustrative cases that capture the filing pattern Michigan SMB owners are facing:
The MI filing pattern is consistent: a Detroit-area independent bike retailer with e-commerce and rental-booking flows lacking labels; an Ann Arbor independent dental SMB with appointment-booking missing labels; an independent fitness or crossfit studio with class-booking and membership-portal flow lacking accessible inputs; an independent automotive-services SMB with online booking missing labels. None of these are exotic technical failures — they're WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify-plus template-level issues that travel through SMB web stacks.
A Michigan SMB operator — bike retailer, dental practice, fitness studio, automotive-services SMB, or craft brewery — benefits most from being defensible rather than perfect. MI courts favor documented, ongoing WCAG 2.1 AA compliance in settlement posture, especially when paired with Elliott-Larsen-specific defenses. The fastest defensive moves are: a free scan, a one-time $19 full audit, timestamp-documented remediation, and monthly monitoring on a defensible cadence. ADAflags covers all of those steps in under fifteen minutes.