Current cases
An Important Note About Confidentiality
We instruct our clients never to talk to the media or to make any public comment concerning their case. Anything you say can and will be used against you by your adversaries. If anybody asks to talk with you about your case, please decline to comment and suggest they contact your attorneys.
Developments in Some of Our Current cases:
Young, et al. v. FirstMerit [the Joanne Schneider Ponzi Scheme]
In May, 2006, our firm filed a class-action lawsuit against First Merit Bank, N.A. Our clients are six individuals who bought promissory-notes from Joanne Schneider's $60 million "Mortgage Escrow" ponzi -scheme. We claim that First Merit Bank ignored obvious warning signs that its customer, Joanne Schneider, was using her First Merit account to facilitate her illegal scheme. If out class is certified, we will demand that First Merit reimburse all eligible promissory noteholders for their losses, plus interest.
The case is pending before the Hon. John O'Donnell of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in downtown Cleveland. At present, there are two issues for the court decide: (1) whether or not to throw the case out of court based upon the bank's argument that it has no responsibility for the victims' losses, and (2) whether or not to "certify" our lawsuit so we can represent all of Snyder's victims as a class.
We expect that the Judge will decide these issues in the next several months, and we will report developments here.
Fisher et al. v. Gunnallen Financial, Inc. et al.
This case arose out of the E-M Management Ponzi scheme organized by Ed May in Michigan. With the help of a registered investment representative, this scheme was promoted to the investing public as a safe way to diversify their retirement savings in a safe and profitable way. We filed claims on behalf of many aggrieved investors against the broker-dealers who employed the registered representative. We are claiming the broker-dealers breached their duty to adequately supervise their agents and prevent them from promoting the unregistered investment to the public. The case is currently pending in Michigan in a NASD/FINRA arbitration tribunal.