SPECIAL REPORT: Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op Recommendations for ex-Norvergence Customers

Get Current Or Get Sued – Time And Realistic Options Are Running Out

The Norvergence leasing companies appear to be suing ex-Norvergence customers just as quickly as they say they will.  Ex-Norvergence customers who have preserved their ability to litigate by continuing to pay the leasing companies are preparing for an offensive group legal battle by joining with other ex-Norvergence customers similarly suited. 

THE FOLLOWING IS INFORMATIONAL ONLY, IT IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISIONS. THIS INFORMATION IS BEING PROVIDED AS A COURTESY TO EX-NORVERGENCE CUSTOMERS FREE OF CHARGE BY THE NORVERGENCE CUSTOMER LEGAL CO-OP.

A week ago the Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op or “NCLC” began forwarding to the Federal Trade Commission information the FTC has requested from the legal co-op about which Norvergence leasing companies were suing or threatening ex-Norvergence customers with lawsuits for not paying their equipment leases because Norvergence was no longer providing service.  While it is unclear what the FTC can do with the information or when they might act, what is clear is that the Norvergence leasing companies are doing just what their demand letters suggest – suing at the first sign of default.

It seems that for many ex-Norvergence customers this entire situation is unknown territory and are shocked that anyone would expect them to pay for equipment that provides no value. Most ex-Norvergence customers seem confident that the leasing companies are engaged in little more than saber rattling with their “demand letters” and are deciding to “wait and see” what happens with the demand letters.

This “wait and see” decision that ex-Norvergence customers are taking seems to be based on possible consumer-based legal experiences where their biggest legal adversary might be a local home improvement contractor where the legal issue at hand is the amount paid for a bad driveway - neither party has the desire nor the legal resources to litigate the matter past small claims court.  In the majority of the current Norvergence leasing company cases however the “wait and see” decision is buying the ex-Norvergence customers a “stand alone” lawsuit where they are the only defendant against a large, attorney-rich corporation in a distant state.

A brief review of the leasing company demand letters and lawsuits the ex-Norvergence customers are sending to the legal co-op which are being forwarded by the co-op to the FTC, yields the the following conclusions reached by the NCLC:

1. The leasing companies are being quite democratic. There seems to be no deference paid to any particular class of ex-Norvergence customer. Large businesses with 60-month leases over $100,000 are being treated exactly the same as small businesses with 24-month leases under $10,000. It also makes no difference whether the "Norvergence service" ever worked at all. Customers who enjoyed the working Norvergence service for several months are being sued the same as customers who were never got "hooked up" and only received "the box" the day before Norvergence was forced into bankruptcy.

2. The leasing company lawsuit against them is most likely ready to file even as the ex-Norvergence customer reads the demand letter. Whether threatening an actual lawsuit or simple “acceleration”, a review of the time stamps on several leasing company lawsuits against ex-Norvergence customers for non-payment shows that the lawsuit is filed the day after the demand letter says is the “final day to pay”.

3. You don’t always get a warning letter from a “real lawyer”.  It does not seem safe to wait for a “real” demand letter on some law firm’s stationary as the last letter many law suit recipient’s receive prior to the actual lawsuit summons and complaint is what might seem to be nothing more than a mild warning from the leasing company itself about the possibility of default. It is not clear that a warning letter is even required. The NCLC believes that the leasing companies may have the right to sue just as soon as a leasing company "thinks" the customer is in default – which doesn’t require any warning at all and may happen at 5pm the day the lease payment is due. The "lucky" ex-Norvergence customers are those who at least get a letter or a phone call suggesting they can still avoid a lawsuit by paying the months they've missed. Following is a quote from an ex-Norvergence customer from an Internet chat board, "I was just served while eating dinner at my home tonight ... they are suing me for paying 9 days late. All this while I was in negotiations with one of their people to come to a settlement."

4. “Acceleration” seems as bad as a lawsuit. Some leasing companies are “accelerating” the lease payments prior to suit and some are just filing suit after the first missed payment. The acceleration period seems as bad as the suit though in that the customer no longer has the option of paying just the missed payments – they have to pay the whole amount plus interest, penalties and legal fees all within a few days to prevent a lawsuit. 

5. No one seems to be successfully “buying time”. Once the demand letters start, the leasing company millstones methodically grind out one of two outcomes without slowdown from any communication you or your attorney fire back – get current or get sued. As impressive as the logic is in some of the letters sent to the leasing companies in advance of suit, they do not seem to have delayed a single lawsuit from being filed by even a day. And much has been made on Internet chat boards about how the involvement of the federal government or a nice story on “60 Minutes” might put the leasing companies back on their heels. That may be true but the opinion of the NCLC is that sort of attention only increases the leasing company’s sense of urgency to sue as many ex-Norvergence customers as possible as quickly as they legally can. Public attention brought to the Norvergence matter may help in the long run but in the short run it may only increase the likelihood of the leasing companies filing a law suit the day after the first missed payment.

6. A leasing company lawsuit is the equivalent of a mortal wound.  Many ex-Norvergence customers who have never been sued before seem to be under the illusion that getting sued by a large bank in a distant state will be no big deal – all they'll need to do is mail a letter to the distant judge saying, “I got screwed”. Many of the ex-Norvergence customers who have been sued are only now beginning to appreciate the full gravity of their situation. To get an immediate idea of what a day in the life of a sued ex-Norvergence customer looks like, click here to look at just the first of what will no doubt be and endless series of interrogatories that must be answered by one ex-Norvergence customer being sued.

The NCLC has recommended to its members that to avoid being an individual defendant in a certain lawsuit initiated by a well-funded corporation in a distant state, the NCLC members should first consult their own attorneys and then seriously consider getting immediately current with their leasing company to avoid getting sued. Once the threat of an individual lawsuit has passed by becoming current on their payments with the leasing company, NCLC members are encouraged join a group legal action that will enable the ex-Norvergence customers to take a well-funded offensive group legal action to the leasing companies that is unencumbered by individual lawsuits draining the individual NCLC members of needed cash to run their business.

Regarding which group legal action NCLC members should join, the NCLC endorses the Weir & Partners group legal action as outlined at www.NorvergenceLitigation.com for the following reasons.

1. Weir & Partners initiated their group action only after interviewing hundreds of ex-Norvergence customers. They are extremely conservative and only seem interested in getting involved in legal actions they feel confident of winning.

2. Weir & Partners was representing Norvergence customers even before the Norvergence bankruptcy. The NCLC found Weir by reviewing the Norvergence bankruptcy paperwork and found Weir to be already representing the interests of a Norvergence business customer.

3. Most importantly, Weir & Partners have access to the resources to win. They are telling members of their group the total cost of joining their action up front - three times the total of whatever they pay each month to their leasing company or companies. They will launch their offensive suit against the leasing companies completely funded so the leasing companies will know that the the lawsuit against them will be seen by the Weir group all the way though to the end.
   
4. Finally, other ex-Norvergence customers have grouped together separately to fund their own review of legal options and have come to the same conclusion independently - the Weir action represents their best choice among all possible actions available to them to legally get out of the leasing agreements.
   
   To listen to an interview between Dan Baldwin, NCLC Co-op Administrator, Jenny Bernard, an ex-Norvergence customer from Texas and Julia Lovorn, Ms. Bernard's attorney about how they independently decided to go with the Weir action after spending $7,000 on their own legal research separate from the NCLC, turn up the speakers on your computer and click the right arrow button on the audio player below. The entire recording is 65 minutes long.
   
    
   
   If you don't see an audio player above, click here or cut and past the following link into a new Internet browser window and then click on the right arrow button that appears: 
   
   http://PlayAudioMessage.com/play.asp?m=103603&f=QBHJTJ&ps=14&c=FFFFFF&pm=2&h=29
   

Other group legal actions may be born that could rival the Weir group action but it is yet to be seen if any other actions can or will achieve the necessary stature in time to do any of the ex-Norvergence customers any good. Information about a class action recently filed in New Jersey can be viewed at www.NJNorvergenceClassAction.com.  The NCLC has invited the New Jersey law firm shepherding this action to be interviewed on a conference call with the NCLC but New Jersey law firm has yet to set a date with the NCLC for such an interview.

As is clearly seen by how quickly the leasing company demand letters are turning into lawsuits, its certainly possible that the leasing companies are simply doing what their policies state they must due with default customers but it is starting to have the measured affect of individually picking off all the ex-Norvergence customers as quickly as possible so as to possibly eliminate them as potential members of an ex-Norvergence customer group legal action that could defeat them in court.

The opinion of the NCLC is that this mounting attrition of sued ex-Norvergence customers will lead to the eventual defeat of all ex-Norvergence customers unless all non-sued ex-Norvergence customers immediately do three things. First, they need to share this information and all the demand letters they have received with their own attorney. Second, they must preserve their ability to go on the offensive by not getting sued – they have to get current with their lease payment BEFORE they get "accelerated" and/or sued. Third, if they wish to have the validity of the leases adjudicated in court they should join the group legal action they believe has the best chance of succeeding.

What The Norvergence Customer Legal Coop Recommends

As stated above, the Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op or "NCLC" does not legally represent any ex-Norvergence customer or customers and while the recommendations of the NCLC is based on conversations the NCLC has had with dozens of attorneys, hundreds of ex-Norvergence customers and countless others, any or all NCLC recommendations for ex-Norvergence customers do not constitute legal advice in any form.

1. Share this information with your own attorney. Only your own attorney can give you legal advice. Your attorney may find this information useful or not and recommend the same, similar or a completely different course of action. You or your attorney are invited to call the NCLC Co-op Administrator Dan Baldwin at 951-245-6877 to discuss this information. As well they are additionally invited to call Steve Goodman, Sigmund Fleck or George Tadross of Weir & Partners at 215-241-7709.

2. Get current with your leasing payment to avoid "acceleration" or suit. As painful as it seems to pay for an equipment solution that appears to provide no value, this action and only this action seems to be the ONLY WAY to not get sued by the leasing company ON THE EXACT DAY THEY SAY THEY WILL SUE YOU.

3. Have your day in court with the leasing companies by joining a group legal action.  PLEASE REMEMBER THAT SIMPLY JOINING A GROUP LEGAL ACTION DOES NOT PROTECT YOU FROM BEING SUED BY THE LEASING COMPANY IF YOU HAVE STOPPED PAYING THE LEASING COMPANY. Before doing this recommendation three, please do recommendation two above. One of the goals of the group legal action is to get an injunction against the leasing companies to stop paying. DO NOT STOP PAYING THE LEASING COMPANIES UNTIL YOUR LAWYER SAYS IT IS SAFE TO DO SO!

The NCLC has endorsed the Weir & Partners group legal action . To get more information about the Weir & Partners group legal action please visit www.NorvergenceLitigation.com. 

To move forward and sign up for the Weir & Partners group legal action, click here or on the Weir engagement letter link below, print the PDF document and remit it to Weir as instructed.  If you have questions about the Weir action that is not answered by the FAQ section of their web site, please call Steve Goodman, Sigmund Fleck or George Tadross of Weir & Partners at 215-241-7709.

Click here to view & print Weir & Partners' "Norvergence Litigation Engagement Letter"

Once you have printed and completed the Weir engagement letter, fax it with credit card payment to 215-665-1016 or mail it with your payment by check to the address on the engagement letter.

Questions?

Call NCLC Co-op Administrator Dan Baldwin at 951-245-6877 to discuss this NCLC information. To discuss the Weir & Partners group legal action call Steve Goodman, Sigmund Fleck or George Tadross of Weir & Partners at 215-241-7709.

Final Note:

THIS IS AN URGENT MATTER. If you have missed even one leasing payment by even one day you should immediately contact your lawyer and share this information with him or her. The NCLC recommends in the strongest possible terms that you use an overnight mail service like FedEx to pay your leasing payment today to be able to prove tomorrow that you are current. Contact your leasing company and provide them the FedEx tracking ID number and tell them that you are current so they will take your pending lawsuit filing out of the "to file with the court tomorrow" stack.

Ex-Norvergence Customers Who Endorse Weir & Partners Group Legal Action

The following ex-Norvergence customers are just a small sample of those who have joined the Weir & Partners group legal action who have agreed to speak with other ex-Norvergence customers considering joining the group legal action.

To get additional or different references, please contact Steve Goodman or Sigmund Fleck of Weir Partners at 215-241-7709.

This email was sent by:

Dan Baldwin, Administrator
Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op
31500 Grape Street #3-307
Lake Elsinore, CA 92532

951-245-6877 Tel
951-346-3585 Fax