Today’s Journal-News features the settlement that resulted from this law firm’s suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act on behalf of an in-patient psychiatric facility seeking to locate into West Chester Township.
For more than six months following the client’s application for zoning approval, the Township stonewalled Dr. Mohammed Aziz from locating his facility into a former nursing home property, despite the clear language of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring parity in the treatment of psychiatric patients with those with purely physical ailments. It is simply illegal to treat the facilities differently.
The reason for the law is obvious: Just as occurred in West Chester Township, psychiatric providers and patients nationwide routinely suffer repeated invidious discrimination as compared to other health care providers. In West Chester Township the township administration and some of the Trustees worked the citizenry into a frenzy with assorted falsehoods and canards. Then they imposed a moratorium on zoning approvals, targeting the new facility and preventing a zoning certificate from being issued to allow it to open.
Judge Timothy Black quickly addressed these issues once Finney Law Firm attorneys brought suit.
“Nothing is more satisfying, as an attorney, than to stand an over-reaching bureaucrat or elected official before a Federal judge and force him to explain his behavior,” said Chris Finney. “We are pleased that the law worked as intended in this instance.”
You may read the story here.
This is one more example of how we “make a difference” for our clients: Deep knowledge of the law, commitment to its proficient practice, and tenacity in pursuit of our clients’ objectives.
