All too often when a franchisee has a problem with their franchisor they immediately seek legal assistance from a franchising attorney. Franchising attorneys that represent franchisees realize that they are often outdone by the larger corporate franchise attorneys on the side of the franchisor.

It is difficult for them to win cases due to the ironclad franchise agreements, plus most of time it is the franchisee's fault, franchisors make few legal mistakes, they cannot afford too. So these franchisee lawyers look for things like fraud or mistakes and disclosure documents, or violations thereof.

Often, the goal of a franchise attorney working with the franchisee in a large franchise system is to gather up many franchisees and try to file a class-action lawsuit. This is completely problematic because it stirs up the pot with franchisees which are normally loyal in the franchise system and gets them on board against the franchisor.

One franchise attorneys filing a large class-action lawsuit against a franchisor can bring a company with thousands of franchisees to its knees. Not just because of the legal aspect, or the potential victory in the case, but rather it breaks down the communication between all franchisees in a franchising company.

In my many years as a franchisor, this always concerned me, and I always considered the franchise attorneys enemies of our company. They were out to win cases no matter what, and were not as concerned with who is right or who is wrong, but how to legally maneuver and get in between the franchise relationship to turn a large number of franchisees against our company.

In doing so they hope to stir up other franchisees, and add them to the litigation list. In essence it is my sincere belief that class-action litigation against franchisors never solves any problems, and never pays huge amounts of money to franchisees litigating, it turns out to be a windfall for attorneys, while destroying the franchise system, and decades of hard work.

Thus, once a franchisee attorney wins a large class-action case against a large franchising company, you can bet more will follow. And that in my estimation this has been the biggest fear and threat to the franchising industry, you can understand why as a Franchise Founder, franchise attorneys are not on my Christmas list. I hope you will please consider my opinion.