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Call Your Own Attorney First
Please
have your own attorney review the information on
this site to see if they think you should join
the Norvergence
Customer Legal Co-op ("NCLC"). While
many co-op documents have been written by
attorneys, Dan Baldwin, the co-op administrator
is not an attorney and none of the documents or
direct consulting received from the co-op
constitutes legal advice. Why
Join The Co-op By
helping you lower your legal bills or reach a
better settlement agreement with your leasing
company, a legal co-op membership will save you
more money than it costs to join - a one-time
set-up of $95 and then just $95 a month and you
can cancel any time. What
Co-op Members Get The
co-op administrator, Dan Baldwin personally
collects, organizes and analyzes any and all
information and documents publicly or privately
available regarding Norvergence and the leasing
companies. Since November 2003, Dan Baldwin has
spoken to over 1,000 people regarding everything
you can possibly imagine with regards to
Norvergence and the leasing companies.
The primary
reason attorneys for ex-Norvergence customers
advise their clients to join the co-op is so
both the attorney and the client can receive
unrestricted access to all Norvergence and
leasing company documents and information
obtained by the co-op and to get unlimited
direct consultation from Dan Baldwin, the co-op
administrator. The
primary benefit ex-Norvergence customers get
from joining the co-op is the ability to make a
reasonable cost/benefit analysis regarding
questions they have about their situation
like:
1. Should I keep
making my lease payments and if so, for how
long? 2.
Will my leasing company sue me and is it better
to sue or be sued?
4. Should I
litigate or settle and what would constitute a
"good" settlement offer?
5. What are other
ex-Norvergence customers doing and why?
6. Are any
government organizations helping?
7. Should I
litigate on my own or are there any "class
actions" or "group legal actions"
I can join and if so how do I choose?
8. How can I get
in direct contact with other ex-Norvergence
customers in my state or who are with my same
leasing company?
9. Can I get
referred to an attorney who knows about
Norvergence and my leasing company who is
already helping other Norvergence customers?
10. I have a
special "twist" to my situation - does
that make me "exempt" from a lawsuit
suit?
11. I've already
been threatened, "accelerated" or sued
- am I doomed or is there something I can do? Again,
the personal consultation or documents you
receive from the co-op don't constitute legal
advice but as a co-op member you'll be able to
ask an unlimited number of questions and get
unlimited access to the single largest source of
documents and referrals regarding Norvergence
and the leasing companies.
The
Bottom Line A
co-op membership is specifically designed to
save you time and money - period. For just a $95
set-up and then $95 per month (which you can
cancel any time) you and your attorney will get access
to all the documents listed below and any new
documents that become available as well as telephone consulting with co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin. Please
don't join the co-op if you or your attorney
don't think you'll save as much money as it cost
to join the co-op in the form of lower legal
bills or better settlement agreements. How
To Join To
join the
Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op, please click
here to access the Legal Coop invoice. Once
you complete the invoice, fax it to
951-346-3585. To confirm receipt or to have
the invoice faxed to you, please call co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin at 951-245-6877. After
receiving your Legal Co-op invoice,
you will be personally contacted by the co-op
administrator Dan
Baldwin so he can review your situation with you,
answer you or your attorneys questions and/or
refer you to who is most qualified to help. You
will also receive a userID and password that
will allow you to access all the protected
"members only" co-op documents listed
below.
If you have
questions that need to be answered before you
join the co-op please email them to co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin at norvergence@telecomagent.org
or call him at 951-245-6877.
How
The Co-op Got Started
The legal co-op
is a DBA of Telecom Association, Inc. which is
also known as "Telecom Agent
Association" or "TAA". You can
learn more about TAA at TAA's main web site www.TelecomAgent.org. The
reason Dan Baldwin and TAA got involved with the
co-op is a direct result of an article Dan
Baldwin wrote and published last December called
the "Norvergence Review" that
suggested that the Norvergence offer was far too
risky and that small business owners should strongly
consider not signing the Norvergence rental
agreement. Due to the nature of Internet search
engines, TAA's "Norvergence Review"
became immensely popular with Norvergence
prospects and customers and countless
Norvergence customers became complimentary
members of TAA so they could read the article. When
Norvergence was forced into bankruptcy, many
Norvergence customers who were also TAA members
contacted TAA and asked if TAA would administer
and direct a legal co-op for Norvergence
customers if the Norvergence customers who
joined the co-op properly financed it. Since
TAA's primary business is collecting, analyzing
and distributing useful information, TAA created
the legal co-op on July 13th, the day before the
second bankruptcy hearing, for the benefit of
those ex-Norvergence customers who wanted to
fund it and benefit from the information that
was generated, organized and analyzed by co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin.
Co-op
Documents Available To Members
Opinion
Legal Co-op Audio Conference
#5 Audio Recording
- Recorded August 30th, 2004 this conference call compares the
Weir & Partners' group legal action to the NJ Class Action.
Co-op administrator Dan Baldwin interviews Jenny Bernard, an
ex-Norvergence customer who, along with 40 or so other
ex-Norvergence customers from Texas, compared the Weir plan against
the NJ Class Action against litigating it with just the Texas group.
Their decision was to join the Weir action. They spent about $7,000
in legal fees in independently confirm this was the best route. Also
interviewed is Julia Lovorn, Ms. Bernard's attorney who helped her
reach the decision to go with Weir.
Flash Player - 65 Minutes
Click the right arrow button on the player above to listen with
your computer speakers. If you'd rather download the entire audio
recording of the conference call to an a MP3 file (11.6 megs) click
here. Click
here to view & read the 57-page transcript as a PDF
document..
Opinion Legal Co-op Audio Conference
#4 Audio Recording
- Recorded August 20th, 2004 this conference call provides a
complete review of Weir & Partners' nine-point plan to file suit against the
Norvergence leasing companies and overturn the Norvergence rental
agreements.
Flash Player -
97 Minutes
Click the right arrow button on the player above to listen with
your computer speakers. If you'd rather download the entire audio
recording of the conference call to an a MP3 file (17 megs) click
here. To read the 65-page transcript as a PDF file,
click
here.
Opinion Legal Co-op Audio Conference
#3 Audio Recording
- Recorded August 13th, 2004 this conference call is the first
overview of Weir & Partners' plan to file suit against the
Norvergence leasing companies.
Flash Player -
54 Minutes
Click the right arrow button on the player above to listen with
your computer speakers. If you'd rather download the entire audio
recording of the conference call to an a MP3 file (9.3 megs) click
here. To read the 36-page transcript as a PDF file,
click
here.
Legal Norvergence Litigation Engagement Letter - This is
the document to use to join the Weir & Partners action. Please
print it, complete it as instructed and fax it to the fax number
indicated. If you have questions about it there is a phone number
for Weir you can call on the document.
Opinion Legal Co-op Audio Conference
#2 Audio Recording
- Scheduled for 45 minutes, this conference call lasted two and a
half hours. This was an excellent conference call that fleshed out
Weir & Partners' legal opinion of the strengths and weaknesses
of the FTC v. Leasecomm decision and hold it helps Norvergence
customers. The call had a lengthy question & answer
session that expanded upon last week's review of potential
strategies and possible outcomes.
Flash Player
Click the right arrow button on the player above to listen with
your computer speakers. The co-op attorney had
to call in from a cell phone and the first 12 minutes are hard to
listen to but it clears up after that. If you'd rather download the entire audio
recording of the conference call to an a MP3 file (25megs) click
here. Click
here to view the 97-page transcript as a PDF file. 8/6/4
Legal
Legal Co-op
Attorney Summary Analysis of
FTC v. Leascomm Ruling - Written
by TAA's legal co-op
attorney Sigmund Fleck,
this 3-page PDF document
provides an attorney's
insight to the strengths
and weaknesses of the
Norvergence situation
compared to the much talked about FTC/Leasecomm ruling from 2003.
8/6/4
Legal Wells
Fargo Leasing v. Palumbo Insurance - 7 page PDF document where a leasing company sues a Norvergence customer for
breach of contract. The document includes the notice of lawsuit,
complaint of the leasing company. 8/3/4
Legal First
Properties v. US Bancorp - 11 page PDF document where a
Norvergence customer sues their leasing company for declaratory
relief citing unfair business practices. 8/2/4
Legal Patriot
Commercial Leasing v. Daniel's Antiques - 41 page PDF
document where a leasing company sues a Norvergence customer for
breach of contract. The document includes the notice of lawsuit,
complaint of the leasing company,
objections of the defendant and answer of the plaintiff. Other
documents will be added as this case progresses. 8/2/4
Media Novergence
Bankruptcy Leads To Charges Of Scam - At the center of a massive New Jersey bankruptcy
that dealt a blow to 11,000 small businesses in more than 20 states is a small box called "The
Matrix." 8/1/4
Media NorVergence
Mastermind No Stranger To Bankruptcy - Running a phone company into bankruptcy is nothing
new for Thomas N. Salzano. 8/1/4
Legal IFC
Leasing Company Contract With Norvergence - 66 page PDF
document that outlines the specific nature of the relationship
between the leasing companies and Norvergence. It clearly shows why
Norvergence paid their customers to pay their the leasing company
even though the installation was not complete. 7/30/4
Opinion Legal Co-op Audio Conference
#1 Call Transcript & Audio Recording
- 99 page PDF transcript. Scheduled for 45 minutes, this conference call lasted two and a
half hours. This was an excellent conference call that fleshed out
Weir & Partners' legal opinion of the strengths and weaknesses
of the Norvergence rental agreement and reviewed potential
strategies and possible outcomes. 7/30/4
Flash Player
Click the right arrow button on the player above to listen with
your computer speakers. If you'd rather download the entire audio
recording of the conference call to an a MP3 file (25megs) click
here. To view the 99 page transcript, click
here.
Opinion
Legal Co-op
Administrator Situation
Overview - Written
by TAA's legal co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin,
this document was
published to accompany the
attorney analysis below to
give all co-op members a
sense of the overall
situation as well as the
co-op admin's NON-LEGAL
advice about what co-op
members should do. 7/29/4
Legal
Legal Co-op
Attorney Analysis of
Rental Agreement - Written
by TAA's legal co-op
attorney Sigmund Fleck,
this 10 page PDF document
provides an attorney's
insight to the strengths
and weaknesses of the
Norvergence rental
agreement, the starting
point for defending
oneself from any breach of
contract suit.
7/28/4
Opinion
Legal Co-op
Administrator "Draft
Document" of
Likely Legal Defenses -
This is the document that
TAA's legal co-op
administrator Dan Baldwin
created to suggest all
likely legal defenses to
the Norvergence rental
agreement. 7/27/4
Legal
Transcript of
July 14th Bankruptcy
Hearing - The
complete transcript of the
court proceeding that
should be known as
"Wicked
Wednesday" as that
was the day that
Norvergence's bankruptcy
was converted from chapter
11
"reorganization"
to chapter 7
"liquidation".
Flash
Player
Click the right arrow
above to listen to a short
narration of the
proceeding as told by Ken
Aaron, the attorney from
Weir & Partners that
represented the TAA's
Norvergence Customer Legal
Co-op in the hearing.
7/14/4
Legal
Notice
of Appearance -
Notice given in the
bankruptcy proceeding that
TAA was appearing to
represent the interests of
the Norvergence Customer
Legal Co-op. This was
basically the
"birthday" for
the official legal
co-op. 7/13/4
Legal
Weir
Objection To Qwest Motion
- This bankruptcy document
shows how we found Weir
& Partners. They were
the only law firm involved
in the bankruptcy already
representing a Norvergence
end-user customer. 7/12/4
OpinionTAA Review of NorVergence, Inc. - This document was written by TAA's Dan Baldwin in December 2003 in response to TAA member requests for analytical information that would help small business owners understand the Norvergence offer. So that the information would experience the widest possible dissemination, TAA "advertised" the review on Google.com such that anyone who searched Google.com for "Norvergence" would have found TAA's "Norvergence Review". This is how TAA got involved with the "whole Norvergence thing". This is also why TAA finds it difficult to accept when people in 2004 said, "I didn't know anything weird was going on at Norvergence." People who didn't know (the leasing companies) weren't trying to know. 12/3/3 Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Front This is page one of a document faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA. Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Back This is page two of the document faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA. Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Back (ENLARGED) This is the same page two of the document above, faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003, with the text enlarged to make it easier to read. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA. Legal Opinion of Norvergence Contract & Rental Agreement This is a brief opinion paid for by TAA. TAA provided to an attorney the Norvergence contract and rental agreement faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect. TAA posed four questions to the attorney about the Norvergence contract & rental agreement. This document provides the attorney's response to TAA's questions. Norvergence Public Records From NJ Attorney General's Office (PDF 1.7 megs) TAA contacted the New Jersey Attorney General's office and made an open public records request for any documents related to complaints officially lodged with the New Jersey Attorney General's office regarding Norvergence. The NJ attorney general's office provided TAA with 34 pages which are deemed part of the public record. TAA has published the same 34 pages available to anyone who requests it from the NJAG office via an open public records request. New Jersey TV Station Report dated July 1st, 2004 Reports Norvergence is being forced into bankruptcy by several banks. Employees will not be paid. View web report View video New Jersey TV Station Report dated June 29th, 2004 Reports Norvergence employees paychecks bouncing and Norvergence manager reporting cash flow issues. View web report View video New Jersey Newspaper Article dated June 17th, 2004 (The following article appeared in the "Garden State Briefs" section of the Star-Ledger newspaper) Internet company restores service
By By Joseph R. Perone, Star-Ledger Staff About 10,000 high-speed Internet customers of NorVergence were without service yesterday after the Newark telecommunications company failed to make a payment to its network carrier, Qwest Communications. NorVergence Chief Executive Peter Salzano said the company failed to make a payment to Qwest for the phone lines his company leases. "We had some financial matters that needed to be cleared up," he said. "Qwest had turned off some of our circuits nationally. This was a working capital issue." Salzano said his company made a payment to Qwest to restore service. "They received what they needed to receive," he said, "and they are turning us back on." Confused customers initially were told yesterday the NorVergence network was having technical problems. "Their customer service lines were busy for three hours," said Steve Riess, a head-hunter in Chicago. "I haven't had Internet service since 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Qwest spokesman Claire Mylott said there were no outages within the Qwest network, and cited a "confidential customer matter" in declining further comment. New Jersey Newspaper Article dated February 26th, 2004 (The following article appeared on page 53 of the business section of the Star-Ledger newspaper) 'Restructuring' wipes out 300 jobs
By George E. Jordan, Star-Ledger Staff Norvergence, a Newark-based company that sells low-cost telecommunications services to small businesses, has abruptly fired 300 telemarketers as part of a "restructuring." Alexander Wolf, Norvergence's chief operating officer, said the job cuts Tuesday evening significantly reduced the company's cadre of telemarketers based at a call center at 550 Broad St. Asked why the company cut jobs, Wolf said: "We have to bring on people en masse. It's not always the very best-qualified people for the roles. You have to go back and ask what's working and what's not. It's a constant act of reshaping." Wolf said a few hundred sales agents in the field and fewer than 100 telemarketers who remain account for 80 percent of the company's sales. Norvergence, founded in 2001, reported $150 million in sales last year, according to a D&B business report posted on Norvergence's Web site. After the job cuts, Wolf said, the company has 2,500 employees and, on average, hires 300 new employees a month. The company markets voice, data, Internet, pager and cellular telephone services to small businesses, claming it can reduce a business' monthly telecommunications expenses by as much as 60 percent. Because fewer than 500 workers were fired, Norvergence was exempt from giving 60-day advance notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. State Department of Labor counselors went to the company Tuesday evening to hand out applications for unemployment benefits as the lobby of 550 Broad St. filled with stunned, tearful workers headed home after receiving word of their dismissal. "All in all, it was a huge shock for the total number of people to get fired at one time," said Jeffrey Ochoa, 31, who worked at Norvergence for three months. "They just kept calling in 40 to 50 people at a time into a conference, and we would never see them again. Then the next group was called in." "They just axed us," said Don Hagans, 37, a Newark resident who joined Norvergence 10 months ago. "It was just complete disarray and chaos. It's just very unfortunate for me and a lot of other people to have to go through that. You put hard work into a company and all of a sudden they tell you your services are no longer needed." The telemarketing agents earned $30,000 a year plus commissions for working six hours daily soliciting businesses around the country by telephone. They made appointments for face-to-face visits by sales agents.
Questions?
Call Dan Baldwin at 951-245-6877
or send an email to db@telecomagent.org.
Telecom Association, Inc.
31500 Grape Street #3-307 Lake Elsinore,
CA 92532
951-245-6877 Tel 951-346-3585 Fax
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