Our Philosophy
We are a different kind of a law firm. Our lawyers are ordinary people that can relate to jurors because we have not forgotten who we are. We have extensive training and experience to understand and tell our client's story. We do our best to fully understand the truth of our client's story and to share this truth with the jury. After all, how can a jury be expected to do justice if your lawyers have not taken the time to fully understand and tell your story to the jury?
A jury trial is a search for the truth. Even though our civil justice system is often criticized, trial by jury represents the best way to discover the truth. Unlike those who criticize our justice system, an impartial panel of jurors do not bring a financially-motivated agenda to their decision-making. Any reasonable, fair-minded person should not fear placing their dispute in the hands of the jury. We believe that all of the talk about "runaway jury verdicts" is simply misplaced blame, almost always the result of a complete failure by lawyers to understand and explain the truth of their case to the jury. That being said, good lawyers know how to evaluate and settle their cases fairly. There should be no big surprises at trial. You deserve a realistic, truthful and full disclosure of the risks and potential benefits of putting your case before a jury
Our results speak for themselves. We have earned a reputation for taking on matters that have drawn national attention. Trial by jury is a powerful equalizer in our society, but the truth is that the system works best for the party who does the hard work necessary to understand and speak the truth.
Jury Awards 1.26 Million for Debt Collector Abuse
July 29, 2011. A federal jury in Santa Fe awarded $1.26 million against the Denver collection firm of Farrell & Seldin. The case was tried by David Humphreys and Luke Wallace with Local Counsel Rob Treinen.
Farrell & Seldin spent over three years pursuing the plaintiff, a Navajo woman named Lucinda M. Yazzie who has the identical name as another Navajo woman who doesn't pay her bills and didn't pay the subject Target credit card debt. For reasons that no one could really explain, a collector at Farrell & Seldin early in the collection process deleted the debtor's SSN and telephone number in the computer record and substituted the plaintiff's. From then on, despite protests from the plaintiff as well as her employer, Farrell & Seldin ignored numerous notices, red flags, and opportunities to correct the situation and pursued the plaintiff mercilessly, including two attempted garnishments and a lien on her property that as of July 29, 2011 they still hadn't bothered to release and was still a matter of record in the county records.
The verdict was $161,000 in actuals under the FDCPA, NM UDAP, and NM tort law -- all emotional distress other than literally a few dollars for copying costs and the like -- and $1.1 million in punitives for the NM tort for unreasonable debt collection.
Automax Car Dealer Fraud Exposed
May 2010. An Oklahoma County Jury found Automax defrauded an Oklahoma City woman in the sale of a wreck damaged, used vehicle representing it to be new. Evidence at trial established that Automax had resold a number of vehicles, representing them to be new, even though they had previously delivered as "new" to another retail customer. The jury verdict for actual and punitive damages totalled approximately $400,000.00
Jackie Cooper Imports Guilty of Fraud
On October 29, 2009, an Oklahoma County District Court Jury returned a verdict finding Jackie Cooper Imports guilty of fraud. The jury also found Jackie Cooper Imports acted intentionally and with malice and awarded a total of $332,800 in actual and punitive damages for fraud and negligence.
The trial uncovered a fraudulent business scheme at Jackie Cooper to buy previously wrecked cars at discount prices and to resell them to unsuspecting consumers. Dealership management refuses to tell front line sales employees which cars have been wrecked. Instead, the dealership admitting to instructing its sales staff to say "I dont know" when asked by a customer about the previous wreck history of a used vehicle on its lot.
Jackie Cooper testified at trial that the dealership made no mistakes and treated their customer as intended and as any other customer. At trial, the dealer insisted that it sold the car "As-Is" and that their customer was at fault for buying the car and relying on its sales staff rather than having it inspected by a third party. If you buy from Jackie Cooper Imports in Edmond, be sure to have the car inspected by a BMW certified repair shop elsewhere.
