Is Your Website Exposing You to Legal Risk? A Small Business Attorney Explains ft. Paige Griffith
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Links mentioned in today’s show:
The Legal Paige (Legal Contract Template Shop for Business Owners)
Griffith Suazo Law (Law Firm for Entrepreneurs)
Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Bundle
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Follow The Legal Paige on Instagram
Did you know that you hold a legal responsibility with your website? Have you heard of ADA guidelines, but you don’t know what they actually are? How does website accessibility apply to small business owners? Today, Victoria is getting these questions answered by having Paige Griffith on the podcast. Paige Griffith is a small business attorney, the founder of The Legal Paige, and a founding partner of Griffith Suazo Law. Her entire career revolves around educating and supporting small business owners with the legal side of their businesses, so they can protect themselves and grow with confidence.
In this episode, Victoria and Paige sit down for the first time in almost 4 years to discuss the legal requirements for websites and ways to make your website more accessible in 2026. They cover actionable items that you can double check on your own website, right along with them.
If you’ve ever avoided the legal side of business because it feels too confusing, this conversation will encourage you to take a step forward. Be sure to grab your iced coffee and your notebook, you’ll want to take notes or come back to this one because it’s full of legal education.
Personal and Business Catch Up with Paige Griffith
Paige Griffith is a small business attorney, the founder of The Legal Paige, and a founding partner of Griffith Suazo Law. In the last 4 years since Paige has been on The Branding Business School Podcast, she’s had a second baby, moved houses, and grown her law firm, making it a partnership with Alisha Suazo.
She’s always working to update her contracts and put out helpful education for small business owners, so they understand the legal side of running their businesses.
Building a SaaS Company
One of the big projects Paige is working on is building a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform called Retainly. It’s essentially a mini CRM for small business owners who need to do the basics, like send proposals, contracts, and invoices, and keep their clients streamlined.
The platform connects to The Legal Paige with their contracts in it, and it’s currently in beta. The waitlist is open for signups, and users can get access to the beta version if they’re a good fit. The official launch will be open to the public soon!
Trademarking BrandWell Designs
Victoria hired Griffith Suazo Law to help her trademark BrandWell Designs, after initially trying to go through the process herself. Taking this step has been invaluable as BrandWell’s visibility has grown over the past few years. Victoria has sent three cease and desist letters since getting trademarked, and it’s comforting knowing the level of protection and control she now has over her brand.
Legal Responsibilities of Having a Website in 2026
Many founders are overwhelmed by the legal side of their businesses, and there’s a lot of fear that can come from that—especially from having a website. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. It was originally focused on physical spaces, but courts have now been applying it to websites and digital services.
Website Accessibility Guidelines to Follow
Small businesses are regular targets of ADA-related complaints and lawsuits for website inaccessibility issues. This is often because small businesses use templates and lack accessibility guidance and education. It’s important to be aware of how to comply, and here are some key website accessibility guidelines to keep in mind.
Keyboard Navigation
You should be able to navigate your website without a mouse (just a keyboard), and it should not trigger seizures or other physical reactions. If you go to your website and start hitting “tab”, it should start popping through the different menu items. If you’re a web designer, make this a final check once you’re done designing.
Color Contrast
Your text and background colors should have a stark contrast. If you’re visually impaired, this is crucial to read the text on the screen. Your text should not blend into the background or be very hard to read due to the color. If you have professional branding done, you should receive brand guidelines outlining how the colors are intended to be paired and used.
Accessible Forms
All of your form input fields should have a descriptive label. You should know what to put in there. For example, instead of “Name”, put “Full Name First and Last”. This is especially important for screen readers.
Videos with Closed Captioning
If you embed any videos onto your website, be sure to have closed captioning turned on.
Alt Text
Alt text describes what an image on your website contains. This is important for both SEO, to give Google some context on the image, and it’s especially important for screen readers. An example of effective alt text would be, “Paige speaking on a public stage at X conference wearing a suit”. You don’t want your alt text to just say “Image325” or include unrelated keywords, because those don’t describe what’s in the photo.
Readable PDFs
Some websites include PDFs that are just scanned images, and those become one large image that screen readers can’t read. There are no real headings or structure. Be sure that all the PDFs on your website are readable.
Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Pages
Your business website should have a Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy linked in your footer. The Terms and Conditions outline how users can use your website. You're disclaiming what you own, like the copyright, trademark, images, copy, etc. It’s also smart to have an accessibility statement in there, such as you’re proactively trying to make your website more ADA compliant, but should users need additional assistance, please contact here.
You are legally required to have a Privacy Policy if you collect any user information, sharing what information you collect and how you use it. Then there’s cookie tracking—a cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your device to remember information about you. If you’re collecting cookies, you need to have a cookie pop up that links to your Privacy Policy.
AI Writing Legal Documents
Have you ever wondered if ChatGPT or another AI tool could write your legal pages or documents? Paige warns that AI tools don’t know the most updated laws. Contracts are living documents for a reason, and they should continue to evolve as the laws and regulations change. Paige has tested AI-generated legal documents, and they create terrible contracts.
Are Web Designers Responsible for Client Compliance?
If you design websites, you may be curious how responsible you are for your clients’ compliance. You do have a duty to help educate clients on some of the basic ADA requirements. But, it’s important to disclaim your liability in your contract in case any of your clients come back with an issue. It doesn’t hurt to help your clients get started on the right foot. Educate them on color contrast best practices, alt text, and form inputs. Share with them if they ever swap in images, they’re responsible for adding new alt text. Make sure they understand that they need those Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy pages. You’re doing more than just designing a website; you’re informing them of some of these laws directly relating to their website as a whole.
ADA Compliance Checklist
If you want to learn more about ADA Compliance and double check that your website meets the requirements, click here to read through Paige’s ADA Compliance checklist.
Key Quotes
“People don’t understand your contract is only as good as your willingness to enforce it. Some of that enforcement comes with reminding them through your working relationship and process.”
Paige Griffith
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