Complaint Review: L&W Investigations

I and a lot of other people around the U.S. purchased franchises for "L&W Investigations" (formerly known as "Lyons & Wolivar Investigations" based in CA and now) currently out of Westborough, MA. We are currently involved in a legal dispute with them as a joint group of franchisees claiming they committed misrepresentation and fraud.

My decision to purchase (my second franchise) was based on a year and a half search of current, new start up and franchised businesses. I decided on the L&W franchise as I believed it to be unique, related to my own personal experience, somewhat easy to operate from home and primarily because of what I was told by L&W owners and personnel.

Because I had owned prior businesses, including another franchise, I knew where my concerns lied and knew what to ask of the franchisor. The problem was that I did not get truthful answers from the franchisor. Another problem was that because it was a newer concept in franchising there were not many people to ask about the franchisor, its track record, successes, failures, etc. I spoke to the half a dozen people currently involved but all told me they were very new and could not give me a lot of quality information.

Therefore, I based a lot of my decision to get involved in this franchise on the representations and information supplied by the franchisor. The three main owners at that time, Neal Lyons, Stuart Larimer and Scott Crowell all gave adequate (and apparently rehearsed) answers to any questions I or my wife asked.

The list of some thirty questions that I asked them in our final meeting before deciding to get involved answered everything I needed to know about their franchise. But again, I was given misinformation and lied to.

A main question I asked the franchisor (with my wife in the room as a witness at the time) was there any former/pending or on-going litigation/arbitrations/disputes I needed to know about? Their answer, "No". This was a lie, because I later found out that they had, in fact, been in arbitration with at least one other franchisee and were in dispute with at least two or three other franchisees that were threatening to sue them at the time I was performing my due diligence. If I had received a truthful answer then I would not have bought an L&W franchise to begin with. Unfortunately, I believe that the franchise agreement/UFOC and franchise law would protect me. It didn't. Apparently, I found out after that franchisors do not have to disclose arbitration/lawsuits etc. if they determine it is not warranted.

I was given financial information that was not accurate, told other branches were making serious profit, that top-notch former FBI agents would provide initial and on-going training/support, that the franchisor had multiple major national accounts and were adding new ones everyday and that they were somehow different from all the other investigative firms in the industry because of their unique "reports" and "processes". Some of this was misrepresntation but a lot was out and out dishonesty.

To date I know of more than a dozen franchisees whom some have spent their entire life savings in purchasing an L&W franchise that have gone broke, lost their homes, faced divorces, and have severe life threatening health problems due to these lies and misrepresentations by L&W and its owners and employees.

There was a mediation between our legal counsel and their insurance company lawyers. The mediator sided with us and suggested the insurance company settle our claim. The insurance company refused. Because the mediation was non-binding we had no choice but to proceeed. Since then the case has dragged on in court with the franchisor's latest tactics including their appeal to the court to have their names "personally" removed from the case (as if they are not personally responsible...yeah right!)

We will continue pushing on until we get a settlement whether it is through the courts or through the arbitration process.

I am writing this to let people know that they need to do their own investigation of this company before getting involved with them. And most importantly, do not to believe anything that the owners or employees tell you. If you want the truth, ask around first, talk to all of their current and former franchisees and you'll see what I mean.


Sehfl97
Northville, Michigan
U.S.A.