Timeshare Exit Team Responds

Timeshare Exit Team wants to keep a secret from its customers and from the broader public.

The company doesn’t want anyone to know how much money it paid to a major timeshare developer.

The Facts

In January 2020, Timeshare Exit Team — a company that describes itself as fighting for dissatisfied owners of timeshares — paid money to a major timeshare developer as part of a legal settlement.

Unless Timeshare Exit Team has a source of revenue other than customer funds, the company took money from its customers and gave that money to a timeshare developer.

Stop and think about that.

The Secret

In a lawsuit filed by the Washington State Attorney General in February 2020, Timeshare Exit Team is asking a Seattle court to keep the settlement amount secret. You can read the Attorney General’s motion to disclose the settlement amount at this link, and you can read Timeshare Exit Team’s response at this link.

According to Timeshare Exit Team, the settlement amount is a “trade secret.” The company argues that other timeshare developers will use the information to gain an advantage in ongoing litigation.

The Developers Already Know

Multiple timeshare developers have filed lawsuits against Timeshare Exit Team.

• Orange Lake Country Club v. Reed Hein & Assoc., Case No. 17-01542 (Florida Middle District — Orlando).
• Westgate Resorts v. Reed Hein & Assoc., Case No. 18-01088 (Florida Middle District— Orlando).
• Wyndham Vacation Ownership v. Reed Hein & Assoc., Case No. 18-02171 (Florida Middle District — Orlando).
• Diamond Resorts Int’l v. Reed Hein & Assoc., Case No. 17-03007 (Nevada District — Las Vegas).
• Welk Resorts v. Reed Hein & Assoc., Case No. 17-01499 (California Southern District — San Diego).

At Hancock.Law, we think that other major timeshare developers probably already have a pretty good idea exactly the amount Timeshare Exit Team paid to settle with Orange Lake.

Why do we think that?

The same lawyers work all the cases. Richard Epstein and Jeffrey Backman, for example, have appeared in all the cases except the Wyndham case. Mr. Epstein and Mr. Backman are partners at Greenspoon Marder LLP. Mr. Epstein conducted the deposition of Brandon Reed. See here, and here, and here.

Michael Gore, Glennys Rubin, and Alfred Bennington of Shutts & Bowen LLP are handling the Wyndham case. Shutts & Bowen also worked the Diamond case, side by side with Greenspoon Marder.

Unless Richard Epstein can divide his brain into fourths, Westgate, Diamond and Welk necessarily know how much money Orange Lake squeezed out of Timeshare Exit Team.

Unless Michael Gore never speaks about these types of things with Richard Epstein, Wyndham is also well aware of the settlement amount.

If Timeshare Exit Team isn’t trying to keep knowledge of the settlement amount from the developers and their lawyers, why does it oppose the motion?

Chutzpah

At Hancock.Law, we first wrote about the Orange Lake case on May 24, 2020, in a blog post titled Timeshare Exit Team and Chutzpah. We wrote that it takes chutzpah for Timeshare Exit Team and Brandon Reed to describe the Orange Lake case as a victory.

For the definition of chutzpah, we quoted from The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten: “Chutzpah,” Rosten wrote, “is the quality of a man who kills his father and mother, and who then begs the Court for mercy because he is an orphan.”

Keep checking back at this blog. We will post another update after the upcoming court hearing scheduled to occur on June 30, 2020.

_{This blog post isn’t legal advice.
To schedule a free consultation with Hancock.Law, call us 24/7 at (206) 785-7019.}