NAD Sues Chase Bank for Refusing Relay Calls

The National Association of the Deaf (“NAD”) filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Company (“Chase”) on behalf of the Ohio Association of the Deaf (“OAD”) and Lisa Toppin, a deaf Ohio resident. The NAD alleges that Chase’s policy of refusing relay calls is a violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  The NAD, with co-counsel Stein & Vargas, LLP and The Knoll Law Firm LLC, filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Ms. Toppin and members of the OAD experience barriers to equal access when Chase customer service representatives refuse to accept relay services. In being shut off from telephone banking, Ms. Toppin and OAD members cannot benefit from an extremely popular and convenient service readily available to hearing customers.

“Despite our recent success with other similar cases involving banks’ denial of relay calls, we still have much work to do,” said Bobbie Beth Scoggins, NAD President. “We will not stop until all banks allow deaf and hard of hearing customers to use relay services to access telephone banking.”

The lawsuit seeks a court order instructing Chase to adopt a policy accepting relay calls from deaf or hard of hearing people to the same extent that they accept telephone calls from hearing customers.