Litigation & Disputes
Although the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law (often referred to as RICO) is most commonly used in criminal prosecutions, it also applies in civil cases, providing treble damages and attorneys’ fees to plaintiffs injured by repeated fraudulent or other criminal conduct.
For more than 25 years, our team has been obtaining courtroom success for clients in civil RICO cases. We understand the nuances of this complicated statute from both the defense and plaintiff perspectives and have used our knowledge of this specialized area of the law to pioneer the use of civil RICO in franchise litigation. Not every "garden variety" fraud cause is a RICO case. We know the difference and can assess a set of facts quickly to determine whether the RICO claim you wish to bring or the one asserted against you will survive a legal challenge.
And in keeping with our firm’s multi-disciplinary spirit, our most knowledgeable RICO attorneys frequently collaborate with our class action specialists to develop creative uses of RICO, especially when assisting groups of franchisees and their associations in employing leverage against franchise systems who have engaged in unlawful conduct.
