Injunction ends litigation against timeshare-exit law firm and companies; firm founder was disbarred
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Timeshare company Diamond Resorts International has obtained an injunction that wraps up its lawsuit against a law firm along with related companies and individuals who promised to help consumers exit their timeshare contracts.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger of Nashville, Tennessee, issued a July 1 preliminary injunction after the remaining defendants agreed to its terms to avoid further litigation. A press release is here and Law360 coverage is here.
The injunction bars the defendants from operating as timeshare-exit companies, from counseling Diamond Resorts owners and from inducing owners to stop making payments on their contracts.
Diamond Resorts had alleged interference with contract and business relations, along with violation of Tennessee consumer law and false advertising under the Lanham Act.
“Basically, plaintiffs contend that defendants charge timeshare owners ‘exorbitant’ fees under the auspices that they will get the owners out of their timeshare contracts, but the services offered are illusory,” Trauger wrote when she refused to dismiss the lawsuit in January 2018.
Two of the defendants—the Castle Law Group and its founder, Judson Phillips—also agreed to stop exit-share operations in an October 2018 injunction.
All of the defendants disputed liability despite agreeing to the injunctions.
Phillips, the founder of the Tea Party Nation, was disbarred last year, according to past reports by Law360, the Orlando Sentinel and the Nashville Post. Many of the complaints against him were from clients dissatisfied with his timeshare representation, according to the Nashville Post.
At the time there were 109 current and pending disciplinary complaints against him. He was disbarred again in June based on 41 complaints.
