Another Leasing Scam--advice please

I read up on it and PA Labor Law says that the final pay has to be to you on or before the day that it is due and cannot be held. DOT regulations Part 376 state that they cannot hold the final settlement as escrow.

 

I meant any of the money, whether it be the final settlement, escrow, money that I put into the trucks. I have over 40 grand in truck payments and maintenance, plus more money on the things that they made me pay for and didn't give me a choice on it. The cell phone that they made me pay for for the logs was not in the contract and Part 376 of the DOT regulations say that any equipment whatsoever outside the control of the contract, load locks, straps and binders, cell phones for log books, if required by the company, must be paid for by the company.

There is a massive amount of violations that they have racked up and I'm hoping they get investigated after this gets to court. I found all of these on the OOIDA website by the way, they have all the regulations there regarding leasing. I see a lawyer about this on Friday (appointment got moved). Really hoping he'll work with me on a percentage basis. I've been told by a few people that I might be entitled to damages from when they put the 8 tires on the Volvo without my consent or knowledge and charged me for them because it put me far enough in the hole that I missed 3 payments on a brand new Ford Explorer that I had for about 2 years. It was repossessed and it's the general consensus from some of my friends that I might be entitled to monetary damages for the damage to my credit rating and all the money I had invested in the Explorer before it was repo'd.

I don't know, I'll talk to a lawyer. Some people are telling me they'll probably try to settle the case. Not sure if I want to let them do that because I think a judge needs to hear what's going on so he can order an investigation. I'm not the first and probably not the last driver he's done this to. I have 2 other ex drivers willing to take time off from their new jobs to testify on some of the practices and 2 others that almost have their equipment paid off and will testify if they pay it off by then. They don't want to risk losing 10's of thousands by testifying and then having the owner terminate their leases right before they're paid off.

 

HAHA, I love this, I told the company I was going to be seeking legal counsel on this matter. They sent me a copy of the last lease and contract and starred parts that they thought were pertinent and circled both mine and the owners signatures. One of the parts that they starred (I totally missed this before and they pointed it right out for me) is a section that says that if I terminate the contract that I forfeit my last pay for insurance and repairs.

I didn't terminate the contract, the owner did. Doesn't that mean they couldn't use my last pay for the repairs no matter how fabricated they were?

 

For the record, I'm not suing for ownership of the company LOL, I just want my investment back. I am going to talk to a lawyer and a few friends have given me names of some that might do the work and then take a percentage of a settlement or judgement if they think the case is strong enough. As far as paying for a lawyer, that's my only hope, and that's exactly what this company was counting on. They made sure that I was left broke and couldn't afford a lawyer and I can assure you that I'm not the first one they've done this to.

This doesn't just amount to shady business practices either. There were ILLEGAL things that they did and I have written proof, and witnesses for what I can't prove in writing. I think some of what they did could be considered extortion as well. For instance, I was supposed to be home on weekends. I was supposed to be an Independent Contractor/o/o. According to the IRS, I'm not (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=179115,00.html). I ran for 6 days. I told the company a week in advance that I needed to be home on Thursday. I got home Thursday, but Friday morning they called me and told me I had to pick up another load and run it, if I didn't I had to turn in the truck. It didn't matter that my log book had run out, they forced me to back it up and forced me to take the load or I was going to lose the truck and all the money I had invested. I ended up being out for 2 weeks with no 34 hour restart in there. I had no say in when I worked, where I was going, anything. I only chose which way to go and where to get fuel.

 

yep, I did. They didn't follow the terms.

Check that site. By their definitions, I wasn't an independent contractor because I was told what was going to be done and how to do it.