Madigan Goes to Court for Disabled|
Attorney General Lisa Madigan recently filed a lawsuit against the retail-chain Walgreens, Inc., alleging that the company does not offer easy access to disabled customers. Filed in the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County on March 11, Madigan's lawsuit alleges that raany disabled customers are faced with physical barriers when attempting to enter Walgreens' stores. These restrictions include steep ramp slopes, a lack of enough handicap-designated parking spaces close to the stores' entranceways, and inadequate curb cuts. "Walgreens has ignored common-sense laws intended to ensure access to consumers," Madigan said. "Under the law, customers should not be stopped from filling prescriptions, buying shampoo or picking up milk because of physical disabilities:'Melissa Merz, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said that a number of individual complaints from customers of Walgreens had been received by the office and addressed since 1990. Walgreens' spokeman Michael Potzin |
disagreed with the attorney general's lawsuit stating that the company had been actively addressing the office's concernsfor several months. It was noticed two years ago, though that a systematic problem seemed to exist, so the attorney general began investigating, she said. According to a release from Madigan's office, a survey was conducted from November 2001 to February 2002 of 79 Walgreens' branches in five counties, including Cook. Of the stones surveyed„ Madigan's office discovered 69 had more than one state law violation in the exterior sections of their buildines. Walgreens later conducted its own store surveys. After it passed on the results to the attorney general's office, Merz said that statutory violations were also seen in this new survey. Merz said that the attorney general's office tried to work with Walgreens' headquarters to make improvements since then but were having difficulties getting the retail company to comply. He also said that the company started work on a few stores |
throughout the state that needed changes, but could not do a great deal of work because of the bad weather. A store manager of the Hickory Hills branch, 8800 W. 95th t.t., said that his store has six handicapped parking spaces and that he had not yet received any complaints from shoppers of a lack of access for disabled individuals. On the other hand, a management representative of Walgreens at 8715 S. Harlem Ave., Bridgeview refused to comment on the lawsuit. Management from the Walgreens at 5400 W. 79th St., Burbank, directed calls to the chain's corporate office in Deerfield. If found guilty, Walgreen's will be ordered to correct the violations and hire an independent monitor chosen by the attorney general's office to supervise the changes. The company will also be liable to pay fines of up to $250 per day for each violation of accessibility laws. "Walgreen's has ignored common-sense laws intended to ensure access to consumers," Madigan said. "We are not talking about special treatment. We are talking about the right to shop in a public plac." |