Zoltan Hirsch, a double amputee in a wheelchair, has claimed he is trying to make New York City more handicapped accessible, one lawsuit at a time, but some wonder whether Hirsch — who files suits at the rate of about one a day — is a crusader or con man, the New York Post reported Sunday.
Amputee Embarks on Suing Spree
Zoltan Hirsch, a double amputee in a wheelchair, has claimed he is trying to make New York City more handicapped accessible, one lawsuit at a time, but some wonder whether Hirsch — who files suits at the rate of about one a day — is a crusader or con man, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The Brooklyn resident, who lost his legs after a car accident seven years ago, hits out at businesses ranging from a Brooklyn Dunkin’ Donuts to Louis Vuitton in SoHo to Midtown’s Lace strip club.
The suits, seeking damages and legal fees, typically claim Hirsch suffered “an injury” from being denied access. But it is unlikely the 31-year-old Hasidic Jew would patronize some of the establishments he cites, including the non-kosher City Crab restaurant. He even targeted a pedicure station at the Red & White Spa in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, though he has no feet.
Though Hirsch usually claims he cannot get into a business, his lawsuits are filled with precise descriptions of alleged violations inside — bars that are inches too high, condiments that are out of reach, and bathroom towels inaccessible to a wheelchair user.
He sued Sanctuary Tea in SoHo last month, one of 36 suits he filed in May alone, claiming he could not get in the door.
Owner Dawn Cameron said the thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight the case, or even settle it, could devastate her restaurant. There are two steps to reach the restaurant, and she said wheelchair users are helped inside.
“It’s a shame that people are able to do this,” she said. “It’s really just extortion.”
The claims often ask for $500 in damages for Hirsch, plus legal fees to his lawyer, Bradley Weitz of Florida, who has filed dozens of similar suits in that state. Those fees can reach $15,000 per case, swelling with each request for documents, payment to experts or travel reimbursements for Weitz.
One lawyer who defended a business sued by Hirsch said Weitz seems to be exploiting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows the payment of attorney fees.
If even one violation of the ADA is upheld, Weitz can recover attorney fees, explained another lawyer. “It’s ingenious,” he said, adding that defendants often settle quickly.
If Hirsch is successful in all his complaints, the law firm would make upward of $1.3 million — and that is just for the cases so far.
Hirsch and his lawyer have said they are not out for a buck but are championing the rights of the disabled, claiming success in forcing businesses to add wheelchair ramps or make other changes.
But Hirsch targets few businesses near his Borough Park home, instead setting his legal beagle upon businesses in swanky neighborhoods.
Hirsch, who claimed he likes to shop in SoHo, said that as soon as he spots a potential violator, he snaps a photo and sends it to Weitz, who dispatches an investigator.
He said he gets only $500 if a case is settled and no other compensation from Weitz. Several of the suits have been settled under confidential agreements, but most are still ongoing.
As for the non-kosher restaurants, Hirsch, who lives with his girlfriend and their daughter, said he would like to be able to enjoy a soda or even a scotch.
“It’s my prerogative,” he said.
Mendy in midwest
what an outrageous chilul shem shaaim…
arb
his bitterness has gotten creative in a very embarassing way….c
eli
BP trash
What on earth....?
HE LIVES WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND & THEIR CHILD???
Something really isn’t kosher here.
Chillul Hashem!
We mustn’t forget that we are in Golus. B”H we are living in a Medinah Shel Chesed, but we must not act like we own the country or that it owes us!
Yidden are recognized by 3 signs. One of them is: Bayshonim!
Yidden who forget this, are the ones who cause antisemitism to flare up in the open
Disgusted
What a chilul hashem… No wonder there is so much anti seimtism…
Midwest Morty
What if you had to make an emergency bathroom stop and couldn’t, because the establishment wasn’t user friendly as far as your particular impairment was concerned? You might take issue with his methods, but the motivation is serving the ultimate good. We’re living in the 21st century! Is it too much to ask that the needs of the impaired are taken into consideration? One shouldn’t need a court of law to tell them that they’re in the wrong, but if that’s what it takes, then so be it!
anonymous
this is a massive chillul hashem, he should be ashamed of himself! did someone amputate his brain, too???!
Baal Teshuva in the Midwest
My wife and I are Baal Teshuva. This opportunist and his con man lawyer are the type of people who make Jews hated. Small business owners trying to make an honest living for their families EXTORTED OUT OF $15,000 in legal fees. This is horrible! Bernie Madoff would be proud of these two! SAD
????
lives with his girlfriend and their daughter?
Girlfriend?!?!
Girlfriend????
hmmm...
he lives with his “girlfriend” and their daughter? sounds like a con man to me…
Robert Gates VI
this guy has too much time on his feet….i mean hands… :D
Huh?
Girl friend? Is she Chasseedish too?
disgusting
not everyone who wears the garb is an actual fruma yid.
Just Sayin-
“As for the non-kosher restaurants, Hirsch, who lives with his girlfriend and their daughter, said he would like to be able to enjoy a soda or even a scotch.” -Such a fine upstanding frume yid, with a girlfriend and a kid. Just because I call myself the President of the United States doesn’t make it so.
mobile
and of course he is welcome in shul and elsewhere in his community
huh
Hirsch, who lives with his girlfriend and their daughter
is he really frum???
HUH??
HIS GIRLFRIEND AND CHILD!!!??????
Fact or Fiction?
B“H
”…Hirsch, who lives with his girlfriend and their daughter…”?
NOt that stupid in Florida
Ok the reason why he “lives with his girlfriend and their daughter” is because many Chassidim don’t get legally married so they can collect food stamps!!!!!!!!
wheelchair access
The way he’s going about it is wrong….although it definitely should be addressed. I know some disabled people in Crown Heights in wheelchairs and most of the stores or restaurants are NOT handicap accessible…for those wheelchair bound who want to be more independent and do store shopping on their own…it is a difficult path to navigate in Crown Heights.
Where is his Rabbi?
If he does go to a shul it would be nice if his Rabbi came out and condemned his acts of selfish behavior and if the Rabbi doesn’t it would reflect on him and questions about any donation money his shul is getting from him.
are you out of lawbooks
clearly he is merely a minion of an extortion ring so whose business is it
tell em to sue mta for subway access and leave em on a train maybe they’ll learn from the black guy that looks like the amputated parts how to solicit donations from innocent new yorkers
what happened to honor
Wow this guy is something else, don’t we bench? and ask Hashem to provide our bread through through honorable means.
just saying...
actually, you have a better chance at collecting food stamps if you are married….higher income and all
don lekaf zechus
YOu could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt?
Maybe theyre married according to Halacha(Chuppa etc), but havent gotten legally married – so legally she would just be a his girlfriend?
Smells fishy though…but Don Lekaf Zechus right?
Yid
All you reader’s are ashamed of your own blood. Why are you all so worried about how goyim will look at us? Your also all seem really ignorant of the real world around you. Just spend a few minutes at any hospital and you will see countless people who aren’t fortunate as you who don’t have arms or legs.
The reality is that a couple of handicapped parking signs do little to accommodate those who can’t walk.
At least somebody is doing something about it, and sadly it took him to loose his feet to motivate him.
The rebbe once told an Israeli soldier who lost his feet that it was only in order to force him to uncover great strength within him. He later became a huge real estate owner. The article can be found on chabad.org
Milhouse
7, the bathrooms in businesses (if they even have one) are not for passersby, they’re for customers. And yes, it is too much to expect that a business should shell out good money to build a ramp just in case once in a yovel a person with a wheelchair might want to come in. If such a person comes, they can always carry him up the stairs; but even if they can’t, it’s not worth investing in a ramp unless the profit they’ll make from such customers is more than the cost, which it usually isn’t. That’s real money, that comes out of the owner’s pocket; do you think businessmen are made of money?! Why is it so important that cripples should be able to enter every store in the world without help? Why is that worth driving businesses bankrupt?
Milhouse
He may be married to his wife only with chupah and kiddushin, but not with a legal marriage. There’s no aveira since they’re married, and there’s no crime since it’s normal for goyim to shack up, so who cares? Maybe it’s some sort of food stamps thing, but maybe they just didn’t bother getting married legally because they have no need to.
Incensed
He doesn’t have a leg to stand on!
Heimishe yid
This man is proof that a disability doesn’t render someone a saint. He is a very evil man. Why does a small business ‘owe’ this creep access? I wouldn’t want him within twenty miles of my business.
??
Brooklyn Dunkin’ Donuts to Louis Vuitton in SoHo to Midtown’s Lace strip club. – what kind of places does he go to?!?!?
NotFrum
This man is clearly not frum. He looks the part but is lying to the world.
Legless in Schnorro Park
His attorney is clearly using him. In the end the poor sucker has just made a huge chilul Hashem and will not see a penny from his shyster lawyer pal.
Tzippy
Many of the Chassidim in many neighborhoods do not get married or file for their American License. They are married K’halacha, but I think they get better benefits if they are not legally married. I was told that many people now filed for separation to keep their kids in day care center due to some new cut backs.
Hershel Moss
I don’t know enough about this situation to judge…
But, on the face of it, it certainly is upsetting…
Instead of all the bickering, though, has anyone any information about an investigation into this matter and a possible clarification or necessary public denouncement?
We judge favorably, but after fully investigating, sometimes…
hershlmoss@gmail.com
to 21
these guys know how to squeeze out all the best benefits from the government, they get married and after their kids are born get divorced legally but not hallachikly and they officicially move houses (eg from 123 fake street to 123 fake street suite 1 and 123 fake street suite 2) and in that way they are like separate parents not living together and they can get single parent benefits for their kids, apparantly this guy still lives with what legally is his girlfriend and not his wife; i assume she is still his halachik wife
I love Torah, I love Jews
BS”D
I just read the most heinous loshon Hara in those comments! People, please read some Chofetz Chaim :)
Also, he is an amputee. None of us here G-d willing have never gone through anything close to what he has. He has to live every day, devoid of a PART OF HIS OWN BODY! This is hard, and depressing, and it does not do justice to his character to obscenely make remarks of his attitude on life or the like, please guys, have rochmanus. I hope he has all the best. Peace and love.
!!!
To all of those people commenting on the fact that they call his wife his girlfriend are being pretty stupid. It is glaringly obvious-he isnt married according to law, but according to Halacha, therefore, from the point of view of a goyishe news source he is ‘unmarried’. chassidishe ppl do that quite often.
Don-t be so quick to attack!
I imagine he would happily trade your 2 feet for his lawsuits and possible winnings.
eli
disgusting theiving yiddin
Mrs, S.
My daughter has weak muscles and only walks when you hold her trunk and weight-shift her. I was astounded that Karim Camara’s new office on Carroll Street is not handicapped accessible and there is no elevator to get down to the conference room in the basement. The reason I know is b/c an Early Intervention therapist invited us as having benefited in the past from EI to come “fight” to preserve EI. In had to struggle to get her wheelchair up the 2 steps and the receptionist didn’t offer to hold the door. I had to leave her inside with a “stranger- the receptionist, to run down to the meeting.
Afterwards she offered to get out the portable ramp so that we could exit. it is not easy to be disabled. Let me tell you that there are few shuls that we can even get into. Even the 770 women’s section is not accessible easily. I once saw a woman trying to enter on her motorized scooter. Women offered to lift her in on the scooter! Ridiculous.
What about Beis Levi Yitzchak- they have a ramp for what? Then you have to climb a big flight of stairs. I really dispise when people ”bow“ to the laws but it’s all for show. The ”handicap-accessible” bathroom in 770 women’s section is just a show.
I support this Yid suing these places and making the world more accessible for everyone. I just wish that I’d thought of this myself.
Shocked at Millhouse
To Millhouse,
Who are you calling worthless cripples!
Disabilities can happen to people at any moment, Lo Aleinu! You should be ashamed of yourself for attacking the disabled. If a member of your family was handicapped, G-d forbid, you would change your tune fast. YOur insensitivity is unfortunately very common in Crown Heights and Boruch Hashem the Friendship Circle is making inroads with the youth in dispelling prejudice. I have been raising a totally dependent multiply-handicapped child for eleven years and your sinas chinam makes me sick. I used to admire your levelheadedness on these comment boards but now I see your real colors. You better beg mechila fast.
Lawyer-s Joke
It sounds like he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Milhouse
#44, what drugs are you on? I didn’t call anyone “worthless cripples”; you are clearly imagining things. Search this page for the string “worthless cripples”, and the only hit is from YOU. YOU are the first person to come up with such a term, and you have the CHUTZPAH to accuse me of using it? If you want to talk about sin’as chinom look in the mirror, because I have not attacked anyone, but you have made a vicious attack against me. You owe me an apology, and until I get one I do not forgive you. You are a typical left-wing bully, trying to force your opinion on others by pretending that to disagree with you is shameful. So keep your pretended outrage and shut your mouth.
Boruch
One of the biggest terrorists in history was the spiritual leader of Hamas (his name escapes me). He was a paraplegic. Not that I compare terrorism with frivolous lawsuits, but being a cripple isn’t a license to cripple everyone else [financially]. His life is destroyed because of his tragic accident, but that’s not an excuse to destroy other people’s lives.
John Reynolds
This guy is a real piece of work. A very good friend of mine was being sued by Mr. Hirsch. We approached him to see if we could come to an agreement. We also asked him if he was able to speak to us without his attorney. Hirsch answered “My attorney is going to be at my house over the weekend and I will tell him I settled this” We told him that my friend had recently purchased the store and he had already hired an engineer to build a ramp. We told Mr. Hirsch that we would have the ramp done within 90 days and we would make a $1000.00 donation (in his name) to the charity of his chosing. Hirsch informed us that the charity of his chosing is HIM and $1000.00 was not enough, he wanted $2500.00 !! This is where it gets funny … After we gave Hirsch the money, we had him sign a document stating that he agrees to drop the suit in its entirety. He signed the document and we paid him. You think it was over ? Not even close !! The attorney, Bradley Weitz, who is really the person filing the suits (Hirsch is just an Agent for Weitz) decided that there was still money to be extracted from this suit and completely disregarded the agreement. He came up with some BS story about the property owner (Who was included in the original suit) and got another $7500.00 !! from my friend …. Hirsch is just a puppet !! Weitz needs guys like Hirsch so he can wrap his pretty little “ADA” ribbon around his ridicules lawsuits and EXTORT money from hard working people who are trying to support their families. I had a brief conversation with this clown (Weitz) and he could possibly be one of the most arrogant idiots I have ever spoken to. He is a condescending idiot who is suffering from a “Liitle Man Complex”. He really should be a car salesman and maybe he will be after enough people complain to the Bar Association and he either gets sanctioned or disbarred ! It will all work out in the long run. God sees everything and he cant miss 2 idiots like these guys !!