Once upon a time…
A group of seven Canadian automotive franchisees were enduring 3 1/2 years of litigaton hell: 28 delays from the franchisor, unemployment, marital stress & breakup, poverty, being right on the edge of sanity. The usual condition.
Let’s not forget the recurring threats from their own lawyers to keep paying or they will be dropped as a client.
I get involved and encourage them to talk to the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper. They do and a franchisee-bleeding style of article is written. Pretty sympathetic for guys: Not so much for the franchisor.
The franchisees are scheduled for arbitration. After two days, not a single concession, let alone a settlement is in sight.
I faxed the Toronto Star article to 150 United States franchisees of the same system from my office above my garage. Time-consuming but always effective.
All hell breaks loose the next day in arbitration. The franchisor accuses the franchisee’s lawyer of knowing about the faxing (he didn’t), being a communist, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Anyway, the franchisor cuts one cheque to settle the lawsuit.
However, a mysterious $100,000 in fees is added onto the franchisees’ bill by the franchisee attorney (my contact was the treasurer of the small group).
What would you do?
- Refuse to pay and everyone gets $0.
- Keep you mouth shut and let the lawyer pay himself an extra $100,000.
He signed the confidentiality agreement and has never said a word about it. I have never signed any gag order.
Tags: The Toronto Star
