Press Release - Garrity Weiss

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GARRITY│WEISS, & ANAGO FRANCHISING
Press Release
ANAGO COMMERCIAL CLEANING FRANCHISE
“CLEANS UP” IN HIGH-STAKES LITIGATION

United States District Court, Southern District; Final Judgment in Favor of Franchisor Sends Message to Breaching Franchisees

Deerfield Beach, FL, January 31, 2010: Anago Franchising, Inc., (AFI), a national leader in the commercial cleaning franchise arena, called on old friend and counsel, Garrity│Weiss, P.A. to clean up a mammoth legal mess. Historically, Anago enjoyed a tradition of litigation-free franchising over the course of its twenty-years in operation. In that time, Anago grew from one Master Franchisee in South Florida to an international system comprised of over thirty Master cities throughout the United States alone.
However, in 2008 and 2009 the company was hit with two “bet the company” litigations. This type of litigation is characterized by fast-moving injunction proceedings, national witness coordination and strategy-setting, huge damages awards susceptible to pre-trial disposition on motion, and often significant appeals. In short, if you lose this type of case you are no longer in business.

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When the first case arose in 2008, Anago, quite naturally, engaged a large, well-known franchise firm in Miami to handle the matter against their Utah Master Franchisee. The experience left the company with a result far short of what they expected and should have gotten. With legal bills mounting and a lopsided settlement necessitated by their own counsel’s insistence that going to trial would not be worth the end result, Anago realized that they needed “real franchise experts”. News of the perceived ease with which a defaulting master franchisee could exit the Anago system traveled fast. Soon thereafter, Anago’s Phoenix Master Franchisee began diverting payments, keeping false records, and creating the need for a second lawsuit following directly on the heels of the first debacle. The Phoenix Master was represented by the same franchisee/plaintiff attorneys that brought suit on behalf of the Utah Master. The sharks smelled blood, and they were circling.

Anago made a major change, and fast. They needed litigators who were accomplished advocates in the courtroom, and willing to throw themselves into the case and do “what the big guys couldn’t”, which was, defend the Anago system and send a message out to others in the system. Garrity│Weiss immediately jumped into the fray and worked closely with Anago to put together a framework for saving the company. They went on the offensive and successfully initiated and settled the second litigation with the Phoenix Master resulting in a net gain of $1.4 million dollars over the previous representation. Terry Mollica, President of AFI, describes Garrity│Weiss as “a firm committed to its clients.” Mollica, who has been with Anago since its inception, stated “[i]f they had not come to our rescue, we would be defending more shark attacks at a cost rivaling the current national debt!”

Garrity│Weiss prides itself on a non-traditional approach in its representation of clients. The firm approaches each case as an attorney-client team, equally vested in the outcome of litigation. Through this philosophical shift, they have developed a family of clients, many of whom are Franchisors, who all view the firm as an extension of their franchise system.
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