Settlement Would Give Disabled Court Access

SANTA ANA —  A prospective juror who sued Orange County over lack of wheelchair access at the courthouse has reached a tentative settlement, his lawyer said Monday.

Arthur Blaser, a political science professor at Chapman University in Orange, alleged in his January 1998 lawsuit that Orange County violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by depriving him of his right to serve as a juror because court facilities were not accessible for those in wheelchairs.

Laura Diamond, an attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest who is representing Blaser, said, “If the terms of this agreement are adhered to, I feel confident that Orange County will be a place that is much more accessible to people with disabilities of all kinds. I am very pleased with the result.”

Marianne Van Riper, deputy county counsel, would not discuss the proposed agreement except to say that “we will be presenting a possible settlement to the Board of Supervisors” as early as today.

“To the county’s credit,” Diamond said Monday, “they acknowledged that they hadn’t complied with the law and, almost from the beginning, worked with us to come up with a remedy.”

Under the terms of the tentative settlement, she said, the county will survey all the buildings and facilities under its jurisdiction and devise a plan to make them accessible to disabled people within four years. An advisory committee that includes disabled people would be set up to to oversee the process, she said.

The proposed agreement calls for Orange County to pay about $30,000 in legal fees, Diamond said.

Blaser, 45, of Orange, never asked for any damages.