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The Julian Experiment A Success “Owners in Julian and Alpine were outraged when attorney Theodore Pinnock came through their country towns threatening lawsuits and demanding money because, he claimed, their stores weren't accessible to the disabled.
Months later, most of the cases have either fallen away or been settled. For several store owners, there is still anger but also the realization that they must alter their stores to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, as Pinnock demanded. “We all had the sense that we're fine as we are and we don't have to make changes,” said Arlene Howe, a Julian resident who is helping businesses improve accessibility. “That was a false assumption. It took Pinnock's case to make us realize we can't hide behind that.”
To Achieve Full ADA Compliance by 2050 Requires Media Attention and Massive Mailings To Promote Voluntary Compliance
The Saga of An Involuntary Disability Activist and A Fee Seeking Attorney
In 2007, Pinnock & Wakefield is making medical facilities and drug stores more accessible for people with sight disabilities and is representing a man with a disability who was fired by the San Diego Zoo after 26 years of loyal service.
Although the ADA became law 17 years ago, many industries and communities within California have not complied. Pinnock & Wakefield has been retained by clients to ensure these communities and industries comply. Due to the Julian Experiment Pinnock & Wakefield has received 400 cases from people with disabilities “coming out the closet” of devaluation, despair and hopelessness due to years of intentional and innocent discrimination. As part of the advocacy approach, Pinnock & Wakefield may use lawful mass mailings. The Decision
In November 2004, Mr. Theodore A. Pinnock made a decision to take a more active role in the ADA legal arena.
Until then Mr. Pinnock wanted to stay under the “radar” quietly being a fee-seeking attorney. Before November 2004 was planning to pursue his poetic interests and scale back his law practice.
So what changed his mind?
A court ruled that a plaintiff was required to give written notice before filing a civil rights suit. Mr. Pinnock went to sleep. All his ideas and inspirations come from dreaming. So he had a dream about writing notice letters in ADA cases to please the courts.
In hindsight, the dream’s vision was to bring public awareness to ADA issues by using the greedy lawyer with hardball tactics versus small business saga through media attention.
Good Teddy was destined to play villain in this saga and destroy his then pristine reputation so the media would talk about accessibility that the media ignored before 2004. Ever since Good Teddy was 11 he has been in the media as a gifted child and a star athlete in disability sports. Upon passing the California Bar, Good Teddy became Mr. Pinnock and television and print media covered his remarkable story. Mr. Pinnock has been featured in numerous publications such as Times Magazine and Black Enterprise as a successful entrepreneur with a disability. Also, he enjoyed the respect of the courts.
The once beloved Mr. Pinnock’s unorthodox tactics will give birth to the Julian Experiment. On November 11, 2005, Mr. Pinnock went to beautiful Julian, California. Julian businesses were not accessible. On November 21, 2005, Mr. Pinnock wrote 67 letters to Julian businesses demanding ADA compliance and money. Fox News covered the story. On December 27, 2005, Mr. Pinnock was sued by Julianian businesses. In January, 2006 a California Initiative was proposed to stop Mr. Pinnock. The suit was dismissed because the court ruled for Mr. Pinnock. The Initiative was withdrawn. But the media continues to cover the story.
The Julian Experiment damaged Mr. Pinnock’s reputation. In the blink of eye Mr. Pinnock’s “goody-good” image was destroyed and he fell into a depression. During his depression he experienced severe case management issues that damaged his reputation with the federal bench and financial challenges.
However, the Julian Experiment forced a public debate and public awareness concerning accessibility. Making the public aware of accessibility is far more important than Mr. Pinnock.
Overcoming barriers
What’s Mr. Pinnock’s story? It's the story of a man with cerebral palsy who overcame assumptions that he was mentally retarded to graduate from college and obtain a law degree. He's striven his whole life to be normal, yet he's become defined by his disability.
Pinnock said he got involved in ADA law after graduating from law school because no one would hire him as a corporate attorney.
“I believed in making money and I still do,” he said. “I didn't want to be poor.”
Pinnock grew up in Connecticut in a family of modest means. One of 10 children, he was the only member of his family who suffered from cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a chronic condition affecting body movements and muscle coordination, usually occurring at birth. Pinnock uses a wheelchair, and can only stick out his fist to shake a visitor's hand. His face and body sometimes contort as he struggles to express himself, but his words are intelligent and articulate.
Pinnock said that when he was 8 years old, he was placed in a state institution after his father's company stopped paying for his medical treatment.
At first, he didn't talk. He'd been raised in an African-American neighborhood and didn't trust whites. Because of his silence, and his difficulties communicating when he did speak, personnel at the hospital thought he was mentally retarded.
After a special-education teacher realized his potential, Pinnock was sent to a regular school. When he graduated from high school, Pinnock was accepted at the University of Connecticut. He said he was quiet and depressed his first year, sometimes drinking heavily.
“No one really talked to me,” he said. “I went to all the activities, but the other students didn't converse with me. They didn't understand me.”
Pinnock's social prospects improved when he took speech therapy. The goal, he said, was to make his speech understandable 85 percent of the time.
Although much of the college campus was inaccessible to the disabled, Pinnock said he didn't care. His brother attended the school and helped him get around. If he had to, he could slide out of his wheelchair and drag it behind him when he went up or down stairs.
Gradually, Pinnock became more involved in issues involving the disabled. He was elected president of a disabled students' group and served on a committee to improve access on campus.
By the time he graduated, Pinnock decided he wanted to be a lawyer. He moved to San Diego in 1985, picking a spot far from his family so he could live independently.
He attended Western State School of Law (now Thomas Jefferson University), graduating in 1990. That summer, while waiting to retake his bar exam, Pinnock heard the momentous news that the Americans with Disabilities Act had been signed into law July 26.
Pinnock said he went to the law library and looked up one key provision of the act: the section providing for attorney fees.
He filed his first lawsuit alleging violations of the ADA in 1992.
“Why did I do it? I didn't find a job. I didn't make any money. I wanted to work for a company, but they didn't want to pay me. I had no choice but to file a lawsuit,” Pinnock said
Mr. Pinnock’s Responses to Attacks
"As long as a lawyer advocates within the bounds of the law, ethics and court rules, bad or any press has no effect on the lawyer's advocacy, True advocacy yields only to the judiciary, not to the media or the uproar to change the law or public policy." |
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3033 Fifth Avenue, Suite 410, San Diego, California 92103 Telephone: 619.858.3671 * Facsimile: 619.858.3646 www.PinnockWakefieldLaw.com |
