Litigator of the Week: Beating the FTC

On March 12 Robert Wise celebrated a hard-earned win in a civil suit brought by the government. That’s the day U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas issued a final take-nothing judgment in Federal Trade Commission v. Financial Freedom Processing, et al., stating that the FTC had failed to establish by a preponderance of evidence that Wise’s clients — Dallas-based consumer-debt settlement companies and some of their founders — had violated the FTC Act.

According to the final judgment, the FTC initially brought two suits, which the court consolidated on April 1, 2011, as Federal Trade Commission v. Financial Freedom Processing, Inc. et al. The FTC named as defendants Financial Freedom Processing, d/b/a Financial Freedom of America, and its founders, brothers Corey and Brent Butcher, and Debt Consultants of America Inc. and Debt Professionals of America, and their founders, Robert Creel and Nikki Vrla (formerly Creel), who were previously married. Wise represented all the defendants. [See the judgment.]