Curran, et al. v. City of Oakland

On December 4, 2025, Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California gave final approval to a settlement negotiated by DHKL, along with Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), and Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, LLP, to resolve their lawsuit against the City of Oakland for its failure to properly install and maintain curb ramps and sidewalks throughout the City that are accessible to and usable by people with mobility disabilities. The settlement requires the City to make all of its sidewalks, street crossings and curb ramps accessible to people with mobility disabilities, at a cost of between $157 million to $325 million.  Inaccessible curb ramps, street crossings and sidewalks make it difficult or impossible for people who use wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and other mobility aids to fully and equally participate in civic life, making them risk their independence and safety to just go to their jobs, go shopping, or visit friends and family.  Oakland’s own data shows that t 63 percent of the City’s curb ramp locations failed to meet disability access standards, and more than 2 million square feet of City sidewalks were so damaged or broken that they are not usable by people with mobility disabilities.  Under the settlement, the City has agreed, among other things, to install or upgrade hundreds of curb ramps and fix tens of thousands of square feet of damaged and unusable sidewalks each year for the next 25 years, so that the City’s pedestrian right of way is fully compliant with federal and state disability access standards by no later than 2050.  The settlement also requires Oakland to maintain programs designed to increase sidewalk accessibility to Oakland residents and visitors with mobility disabilities and to improve its system for requests and complaints about the accessibility of curb ramps, crosswalks and sidewalks.

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