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This year for our holiday party we decided to celebrate at a Blues game! We brought home a 4-2 win against the Panthers.

Plaintiffs, once again, seek to have the case certified as a class action. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, seeks damages on behalf of the franchisees for violations by the Defendants of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).

A master franchisee is, in some ways, a middle-man between the franchisor and the unit franchisee. For example, if Bobby’s Burgers’ Franchisor is based in Dallas, Texas, they may sell a master franchisee rights to sell unit franchisees in various areas throughout the country.

It seems that some of our adversaries just didn’t want to wait to face us in court. The Fortman Law website recently suffered an attack of hackers. The attack forced our site onto the Google Blacklist and flagged us as a “suspicious site.” This was obviously an attempt to hide our law firm and our blog posts exposing several big-name companies out of Google search results.

A bench trial, or trial by judge, means that only a judge will be present. The judge will listen to both sides present their case, evaluate the evidence, and rule on the matter at hand.

I just got back from a mediation in a case in which I represent 33 franchisees against a franchisor in the automotive repair industry. I love mediation. However, as happens so many times, the parties came in with drastically divergent expectations and the majority of the mediation involved the parties figuring out the other’s expectations.

A special privilege conferred by government upon an individual or corporation, and which does not belong to the citizens of the country generally, of common right. It is essential to the character of a franchise that it should be a grant from the sovereign authority, and in this country no franchise can be held which is not derived from a law of the state.

A class action is a lawsuit that represents a group of people who all fit the same definition of a “class member” as defined in the lawsuit. In class action cases, one or a few “class representatives” are chosen to represent the entire group.

Arbitration is a meeting between both parties that happens outside of court. Each side will present their complaints/arguments and the designated Arbitrator will decide what action should be taken, if any.

Our law office is investigating franchisee claims against Curves. We are interested in discussing your experience with Curves at your convenience.