BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – A Massachusetts man seeks to stop advertisements from two law firms in Chicago and Alabama targeted at Uber drivers.
Derrick Brown, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a complaint on Nov. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against Keller Lenkner LLC and The Dampier Law Firm PC alleging untrue and misleading advertising and other counts.
According to the complaint, in 2018, the defendants advertised on radio stations in the Boston metropolitan area that they were providing services in assisting Uber drivers in obtaining monetary compensation for their earnings and revenues they might receive as a result of driving for Uber. The suit states the defendants' advertisements referenced the Federal Trade Commission's $20 million fund established after a lawsuit against Uber.
The suit states after calling the number provided in the advertisement and passing a screening process, the caller is sent a fee agreement for legal services that allegedly makes no mention of the FTC settlement. The plaintiff alleges the agreement states the clients are engaging the defendants to pursue claims in arbitration. The fee agreement also allegedly "sets forth an equally outrageous, oppressive and unconscionable fee arrangement," the complaint states.
The plaintiff holds Keller Lenkner LLC and The Dampier Law Firm PC responsible because the defendants allegedly fraudulently induced plaintiff and the class to agree to the arbitration provision in a fee agreement so the defendants would arbitrate wage act claims. He is seeking to stop dissemination of the allegedly false advertising.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks disgorgement of all profits, rescission of the fee agreement, award of attorneys' fees and such other relief as the court may deem just and proper. He is represented by Michael A. Borrelli in Middleboro, Massachusetts.
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts case number 1:18-cv-12423-NMG