Help Strangecat Toys Fight Unjust Lawsuit

Hello,

My name is Cory, and along with my partner Evette, I’m one of the owners of Strangecat Toys. I’d like to take a few moments to share a challenge we’ve been facing since February of this year. We recently received a letter informing us that we were being sued for discrimination related to an ADA issue on our website.

At first, I thought it might be a scam, but soon we were flooded with letters from attorneys and companies specializing in ADA compliance. I reached out to a legal friend to get some advice, and after she looked into it, we learned that this lawsuit was, unfortunately, very real.

The lawsuit stems from a legally blind individual who claims they were unable to purchase a Bobbi the Baphomet toy for their nephew on our website. In response, I immediately retained an attorney experienced in handling these types of cases. It turns out that this is a common—and unfortunately, frivolous—type of lawsuit that happens daily across the country.

Our case is being pursued by Andrew Toro, the individual suing us, with representation from Attorney Mars Khaimov. Toro has allegedly filed over 100 ADA-related lawsuits in just the past two years, while Khaimov himself has allegedly filed over 500 such lawsuits. Allegedly, Khaimov is known for suing around 300 businesses every single day. The goal is often to get businesses to settle for around $5,000 to $10,000, as that amount is typically cheaper than hiring an attorney to defend against the lawsuit.

After consulting with our attorney, we made the decision not to settle, but to fight for a dismissal of this baseless case. Unfortunately, after months of legal battles, the judge has ruled not to dismiss the case, and we now face the prospect of taking it to trial. To continue this fight, we’re looking at an additional $30,000 in legal fees, on top of the nearly $20,000 we’ve already spent out of our own pockets.

As many of you know, Strangecat Toys was started from the ground up, with no investors, no financial backers, and no “rich uncles.” Just a lot of hard work, passion, and dedication. You may have noticed the ADA icons on our website and many others. The truth is, nearly half of the businesses displaying these icons have been targeted and sued in similar cases. While we fully support equal access for all, including those with disabilities, we had no idea our website was non-compliant. Had we known, we would have taken steps to fix it. But we were never given the opportunity to address this issue—Andrew Toro never reached out to us about the problem before filing the lawsuit.

Since then, we’ve added an ADA compliance app to our site, which costs us $140 per month, and have also implemented image alt-text for just 20 cents per image. But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re still fighting a lawsuit that feels unjust and predatory.

At this crossroads, we have two options: we can settle for the $5,000 to $10,000 and put this behind us, or we can keep fighting and invest another $30,000 to defend ourselves. I hate to see small businesses like ours, and others I know personally, targeted by these kinds of lawsuits. The financial strain and emotional toll this has put on our family and business has been one of the hardest experiences of our lives.

We need your help. We’ve set up a GoFundMe to support the costs of continuing our legal defense. Any contribution—no matter how small—would be deeply appreciated. If you’re unable to donate, we’d be so grateful if you could help spread the word about the predatory nature of this lawsuit.

If we exceed our fundraising goal, any extra funds will be used to assist other small businesses facing similar challenges. If we don’t meet our goal, unfortunately, we’ll be forced to settle, which would allow these kinds of frivolous lawsuits to continue harming small businesses like ours.

Thank you so much for your time, support, and generosity.

Cory, Evette & Matilda