‘Absolutely Will Not Engage’: The Bar Doubles Down on Denying Disability Coverage

I have carefully reviewed your email. At this point, however, your correspondence does not appear to present a request for a specific reasonable accommodation under the ADA that requires further discussion of the interactive process. Your email primarily includes legal arguments, requests for institutional legal positions, requests for admissions, explanations of litigation-related issues, and assertions about potential or anticipated legal claims against the State Bar and its personnel.

You expressly stated in an earlier email that you are pursuing litigation in federal court concerning these matters. Under these circumstances, the State Bar absolutely will not engage in litigation-oriented questioning, legal debate, or adversarial email correspondence concerning statutory interpretation, legal theories, institutional liability, or anticipated claims.

The State Bar has already addressed your accessibility-related requests, including written-only communication and handling of accessible formats. The Bar remains willing to honor any reasonable accommodation relating to access to the grievance process itself.

To be clear, the State Bar’s position remains that it is not subject to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The State Bar has previously explained that it is a private, member-funded organization that serves as an administrative arm of the Supreme Court of Georgia, at the pleasure of the Court. The Bar does not concede the applicability of Title II to the matters you describe. To the extent that it has ADA obligations, the State Bar’s position is that such obligations would arise under Title III rather than Title II.

Because your correspondence largely seeks legal conclusions and responses concerning issues you have indicated will become the subject of litigation, you must direct all those questions to Deputy General Counsel .

I hope your post-surgery recovery is going well.

Thank you.