What evidence actually helps in an ADA website lawsuit?

Dated, continuous records: scan history showing you tested regularly, every fix with a timestamp and verification rescan, and current conformance status per criterion. This is what turns a settlement negotiation. What does not help: an overlay receipt, a one-time audit from last year, or fixes started after the letter arrived, which filers read as concealment rather than remediation.

Why documentation changes the economics

Most ADA website cases settle, and the number is set by what each side can prove. A brand with twelve months of scan history and dated repairs is an expensive target: willfulness is hard to argue, damages narratives collapse, and plaintiff counsel knows their filing is weak. A brand with nothing but a widget subscription is the discount bin.

What a defense-ready file contains

The initial audit with every issue mapped to its WCAG criterion and component. Every fix, dated, with the verification rescan that confirmed it. Monthly reports summarizing status and activity. Current conformance per criterion per template. The file is formatted so counsel, an insurer, or a court can read it without translation, because in a dispute nobody has time for your tooling's export format.

Why timing is everything

Evidence only counts if it predates the claim. A remediation program started the week after a demand letter is still worth doing, but it does nothing for the letter in hand. The brands that settle cheap are the ones whose programs started a year before anyone sued them.