GM Law Firm – Reported as Fraudulent by Clients
About GM Law Firm
GM Law Firm is a Boca Raton based consumer advocacy law firm that claims to specialise in a variety of debt and loan issues. According to their official website, GM Law Firm’s practice areas involve student loan debts, credit card debts, and medical debts.
How can GM Law Firm help you with their services? As you can expect from any other consumer advocacy law firm, they claim to be an expert in battling debts and loans issues by fighting for their client’s right while fending off creditor harassment and any kind of credit frauds.
GM Law Firm is officially registered by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), a non-profit organisation whose aim is to advance marketplace trust across the United States and Canada. While the majority of businesses listed on Better Business Bureau are trusted and reliable, it is not a 100% guarantee that a BBB certified business can not perform any fraudulent act on their customers.
Did You Know?
BBB (Better Business Bureau) was founded by Merle Sidener in the year, 1906. The firm was initiated by the government against various firms, including the Coca Cola and Forty Barrels.
At first glance, GM Law Firm may seem like a decent and legit law firm operating for the sake of their client. In the following article, we will thoroughly evaluate each aspect of GM Law Firm including their websites, reviews, controversies, the personnel behind this company, and most importantly the truth behind GM Law Firm.
Website Assessment
One of the most common ways for consumers to check on the credibility of businesses is by checking their official websites. Sure, it used to be a reliable way to check on a business credibility, but not anymore. Nowadays, making a website can be done effortlessly and there are plenty of tools to easily create a professional looking website. Conclusively, any individuals or businesses can come up with their own compelling official websites, which is why we do not recommend you to completely judge a company based on the looks of their website.
You can check out GM Law Firm’s official website by clicking here.
Directly, you will be taken to their home page, which seems straightforward and quite professional even to our standards. On the tabs, there are a total of 9 different sections including home, about us, reviews, volunteer work, success stories, attorneys, practice area, and contact.
Seemingly, there is nothing wrong or suspicious about their official website. If any, their website may be more than convincing enough to ensure potential clients that they are offering a legitimate service.
However, as we mentioned above, a website is by no means a guarantee of a business credibility, even when they attach a certification from other organisations just like GM Law Firm did with the Better Business Bureau badge.
Considering how good GM Law Firm’s official website is, it is very normal for any of their potential clients to think of them as a legitimate law firm. While we do find some areas that present a certain level of suspicion (which we will discuss more in the following sections), the rest of their website definitely looks exactly like a normal business website.
Attorneys, Success Stories, Volunteer Work
3 tabs that catch our eyes on their official website are the “ATTORNEYS”, “SUCCESS STORIES”, and “VOLUNTEER WORK”. As we are examining a law firm, we head directly to the “ATTORNEYS” section, which turns out to be a short paragraph about their senior partner, Chantel Grant.
We did expect more than just one attorney as the website states attorneys with an s. However, it is actually quite common for a law firm to have just one senior attorney overlooking the operation of the firm itself. Thus, this does not raise any concern on our part.
It is stated on the profile that Chantel Grant went to the St Thomas School of Law in Miami, Florida after completing a degree in the University of Minnesota. The website also includes a link to the Florida bar website showing Chantel Grant’s official bar licence which she gained after graduating from the St Thomas School of Law back in 2008.
“Volunteer work is extremely important to the lawyers at GM Law Firm LLC. Charitable works and an attitude of unselfishness is what allows us to improve the world we live in. It is important to us that we share the blessings that we have received with those who need it most”.
The words above are directly quoted from GM Law Firm’s official website when you click on the volunteer work section. Again, it clearly states lawyers at GM Law Firm LLC, but the page itself is dedicated to show off Chantel Grant’s position and volunteer work. Most of the claims are regarding Chantel Grant’s volunteer work in different organisations and institutions. While there is no solid proof except for a few pictures that do not really explain anything, we double checked several things posted on the page which came out to be true, including her being a member of the Florida Association Women Lawyers and the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Finally, we went on to check on what the website claims to be as GM Law Firm’s success stories in helping with their client mostly with student loan lawsuits. Instead of stories, what we found are just a collection of claims stating how they helped their supposed clients with their lawsuits. Again, we do not find any proof or justifications to confirm the trust behind these “success stories”.
Reviews: Real and Fake
When it comes to checking the legitimacy and the quality of services a business offers, there are no better ways than checking on their consumer’s review. Well, checking customer’s review is definitely a valid method until businesses around the world start creating fake reviews for their own businesses. Of course, business owners can filter and make their own reviews to post on their websites, but does that mean reviews on external sites such as yelp and google reviews are completely reliable?
The answer is no. Anyone with access to the internet can simply create a google account and post a review on businesses they never even used. As a result, there are individuals and companies offering fake reviews for businesses who want a boost of 5 stars review.
We will show you some of the reviews that are posted on their official website shortly, but before that, let us check on their google reviews. GM Law Firm has a rating at an average of 4.5 stars out of 5, with a mixture of good and bad reviews just like with any other normal businesses. We can not really accuse GM Law Firm for posting fake reviews, but we did find something odd on the 5 stars reviews that are posted on their google reviews.
As we checked on the profile of the individuals giving detailed 5 star reviews on GM Law Firm, we also found out that most of these accounts have only posted only one review on google, which “coincidentally” is the one 5 star review that they posted for GM Law Firm. We will leave you at that for your own interpretation, now let us move on to the reviews posted on their website.
Always reassuring
Thanks so much for your phone call this morning. Talking with you is always reassuring and I am most grateful for this time you took with my son. He is… read more
Bruce S.
12/08/2019
Greatly appreciated
Thank you so much! I sincerely appreciate getting to work with you and the fact that you care. Sadly, you know what it is like to deal with this all… read more
Nichole F.
1/10/2020
You can find more of the reviews on their website, but as each review is written with the same format and ratings (5 out of 5 stars), we do not feel the need to include more examples from their website. Again, we are not accusing GM Law Firm for writing and posting fake reviews, but there really is no way for us to confirm the authenticity of these reviews, especially with the fact that there are no profile pictures on these reviews that they posted on the website and how each review is written with a similar format.
GM Law Firm Exposed
As we have gone through the 5 stars review on google review and their official website, let us check on the reviews from users who gave GM Law Firm worst reviews. Here are some of the reviews:
“This lawyer and firm is a total fraud. Search the web and don’t listen to these paid reviews. She is a total scammer. They stolen thousands of dollars from me and did nothing. It’s scary how every complaint out there and all the lawsuits say the same thing. There’s a reason why. Don’t trust them. Run far away! They’re being investigated.”
Nyla Valdez
“Fraud alert!
I have just become aware of this company as a result of them allegedly helping an elderly friend of mine with a >$3,000 CC debt.
After my friend paid $300 a month for 18 months for their legal assistance, the phone suddenly went silent on their part, right about the same time as a judgement was awarded to the original creditor against my friend. The judgement was for twice the amount of the original debt, and there is no accounting for the $5,000 paid to GM Law Firm for representation. And now a judgement to Garnish income has arrived and all along no communication with her about this ongoing legal action.”
Larry Kingman
These are some of the 1 star reviews that you can check on google reviews. As you can see, both reviews accused the GM Law Firm for fraudulent acts involving the services they provide for their customers. Of course, these are coming from google reviews and just like the 5 stars review, they may not be 100% reliable.
According to the review by Nyla Valdez, GM Law Firm is currently being investigated. Accordingly, we decided to run a check on whether it is true and what sort of investigations are being carried out.
Turns out, there is a case filed on GM Law Firm as stated on case No. 2:18-cv-01110-CBM-FFM in the United States District Court Central District Of California Los Angeles Division.
The case itself was regarding fraudulent actions taken by GM Law Firm involving signature forging, “the Student Loan Resolution program”, and the hiring of employees without proper certifications and qualifications as an attorney.
Words From Insider
The case was then supported by an affidavit by Ms Je Henna Williamson, a former employee of GM Law Firm who works as the Document Specialist Supervisor. The following are some of the important points included on the 4 pages affidavit:
- NLSS (National Legal Staffing Support) is an entity that operates with GM Law Firm to forge client’s signature for multiple legal documents including customer retention agreements
- Three business entities including NLSS, Resolvly, and GM Law Firm itself are shell companies controlled by Gregory Fishman to perpetuate and profit from his fraudulent acts
- The student loan resolution program is a fraud aimed to steal client’s money via the monthly draft payment
- Attorneys are recruited with the premise of making easy money using marketing strategy (which are lies), payment structure, and racket setup
- There are no qualified attorneys or paralegal working with the entity, which raises questions on whether or not Chantel Grant is involved with GM Law Firm
The Man Behind GM Law Firm
The official website never mentioned anything about the personnel behind the GM Law Firm. However, the affidavit does mention that GM Law Firm is runned and controlled by Gregory Fishman, who apparently also holds a position as president for 2 other companies including Resolvly and NLSS, which are claimed to be fictional companies that serves as a shell company for Gregory Fishman, according to the affidavit by Je Henna Williamson.
In the same affidavit, Ms Williamson also claimed that Gregory Fishman managed to pull off this whole scheme from his experience as a sales manager in Berges Law Group, which turns out to be another consumer fraud racket in South Florida that has been shut down.
Key Takeaways
In the field of law and legal help, it is extremely important for potential clients to fully understand the nature of the situation. Additionally, it is as important for any potential client to run a thorough background check on each individual and firms, just like we did with GM Law Firm.
I am a victim of G M Law Firm. I paid them for 18 months and they send me a letter stating I had canceled their services. I contacted them to tell them that wasn’t true. So I told them since they say they record everything I wanted them to listen to see if I said that.They left and came back and said what if they wrote a letter saying they canceled me. I told them they had already lied so I told them no. I also asked for my money to be refunded a total of $5600.00. They said they would refund me 2 months and I told them that wasn’t enough. I also filed a complaint with BBB. They are now offering me $1500.00 and I told them that wasn’t enough. Their response to BBB was that they have been working hard for me and they have went over way more than I paid them. Every bill that they was supposed to handle I got summons on. They want me to sign some papers releasing them of responsibility.
Not a good firm. They are scammers.
Please kept me informed.
Mary Stribling
ms************@gm***.com
No good