Court Confirms $440,000 Arbitration Award after Hard-Fought Lawsuit

Attorneys at the East Valley law firm, Denton Peterson Dunn, PLLC, recently obtained over $440,000 on behalf of their client Ms. Drocelle Bénézet, a franchise owner who had a contract dispute with the company Jani-King, which is based in Phoenix. With the arbitration award settlement, Ms. Bénézet was able to reclaim her losses and damages. The attorneys at Denton Peterson Dunn won the case after successfully demonstrating that Jani-King had breached their franchise agreement with Ms. Bénézet and acted in bad faith.

When interviewed about the case, lead attorney Brad Denton stated, “It felt so good to read that ruling, after all the hard work everyone put in to get a successful result for Drocelle. Jani-King set up a business that takes advantage of its franchisees. Drocelle invested her savings and worked hard, but she never really had a chance because of Jani-King’s bad faith.”

Denton Peterson Dunn represents clients in many areas of business law. Among their expertise is franchise law, which can include setting up franchise systems, evaluating legal documents related to franchise operations, and litigating franchise disputes. “It’s a complicated area of law,” Denton stated. “Having experience and expertise in this sort of case makes all the difference.” In this particular case, Denton Peterson Dunn was asked to take over the case after another attorney could not successfully conclude the dispute. This is not an uncommon event for the team at Denton Peterson Dunn. Sterling Peterson, one of the partners in the legal practice, indicated that the legal cases that transfer in from another attorney are “really challenging cases, but at the end of the day they can be some of the most rewarding ones, too.”

Due to this provision in the contract, Jani-King argued that Ms. Bénézet should not be able to recover the full damages. Denton disagreed, and argued that Jani-King had acted in bad faith, and therefore the damages limitation should not be applied. After hearing the arguments and reviewing the information, the arbitrator agreed with Denton and determined that Jani-King could not enforce the franchise limitation. Ms. Bénézet was awarded $440,000+ to cover the damages she suffered as a result of the bad faith franchise agreement with Jani-King.

After hearing about the outcome of her case, Ms. Bénézet said, “I’m grateful that Mr. Denton’s arguments carried the day. I invested more than $400,000 and almost two years of my life, and it’s ridiculous that I had to bring legal action to get this resolved.” Thanks to the legal expertise of the attorneys at Denton Peterson Dunn, Ms. Benezet has been awarded damages and is ready to move forward with her career goals.