CONSUMER PROTECTIONLITIGATION
Focused on Deceptive Trade Practices, Identity Theft, Unfair Debt Collection, Consumer Bankruptcy, Landlord-Tenant, Real Estate, Contract & Business Formation, Estate Planning, and Probate.
MISSION STATEMENT:
This is a consumer protection litigation firm - meaning that the work we do is to protect consumers and advocate on their behalf, usually against corporations, credit card companies, insurance companies, and occasionally regulatory or governmental agencies. The vast majority of attorneys today never actually try contested cases in court, but this firm will only represent clients who are prepared take their claims to trial, usually before a jury, if your demands are not met. Almost inevitably the other side has greater resources than our clients, and therefore there is often a David-vs-Goliath dynamic inherent in the process. But by taking only cases we believe in, where our clients have been actionably wronged, we have enjoyed a good rate of success and recovery of relief.
The kind of consumer protection work this firm focuses on is an area of the law where there is great need, and it is often difficult to find adequate representation. This may be in part due to the economic realities of consumer protection litigation in the post-tort-reform era - the fact that practitioners in this area of the law will never get rich doing this, and that it is hard work, often seemingly fighting an uphill battle. But there are offsetting benefits – like the fact that it’s easy to sleep at night knowing your work is meaningful, and that you’re actually helping people and making a difference in their lives.
This is why I went to law school, and why I started this firm, to help real people – often my friends and neighbors – with the real issues they face in their lives, especially when they are facing injustice at the hands of faceless corporations, that can oftentimes be bellicose and belligerent when they refuse to acknowledge liability or compensate individuals for the wrongs they have visited upon them, hiding behind bureaucratic veils as they seek only to protect their bottom line, and often try to blame the consumer for the problem they have created. It’s simple math for most of these businesses – they know if they ignore everything, most of the time people will just give up and go away, which is why this firm is committed to taking every case to trial and holding them accountable.
PRACTICE
AREAS
Consumer Protection
This over-arching area includes everything from a dangerous and defective nonconforming new or used car to a new or used home or other real property that had undisclosed defects or design problems, and anything in between - including oftentimes service contracts or insurance disputes as well. The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Unfair Dept Collection Practices Act, common-law claims for Fraud, Breach of Contract or Warranty, Unfair Insurance Settlement Practices and many other Texas statutes give rise to causes of action and avenues of redress for aggrieved consumers. From automobiles, boats or motor homes to real estate or business purchases, many of these statutes contemplate and allow for not only the award of all actual damages, but sometimes punitive or statutory damages as well when knowing or intentional malfeasance can be established. Litigation in this area constitutes the vast majority of my caseload.
Identity Theft
ID Theft is an emerging area of the law, a subset of consumer law, and a growing problem exacerbated by the accessibility of information in the digital age. New statutes make it easier to clean up your credit report and reverse the effects of Identity Theft, and even to hold the creditors or the credit reporting bureaus responsible for your court costs and attorney’s fees if they fail to adequately respond to our initial demand letters in the time period allowed under the relevant statutes.
Contracts, Business Formation & Litigation
Contract claims are an essential, underlying part of almost every consumer case. In fact, in certain situations, the only actionable claim may be a claim that sounds in contract, and therefore as another subset of our consumer protection practice we handle contract claims, drafting and reviewing contracts, and business formation and litigation, including business sales, purchases and commercial leases. Getting sound legal advice at the outset of any business venture is always a better idea than waiting until a problem arises after the fact and trying to go back and fix it, and certain corporate entities, such as Limited Liability Corporations, are very inexpensive to form and maintain, while still shielding the business owner from personal liability for the business debts or liabilities that arise in the normal course of their dealings.
Real Estate Transactions & Litigation
Real estate litigation is a natural extension of consumer protection law and this firm has handled many complex cases in this area including litigation arising from real property transactions, reverse mortgages, wrongful foreclosure, partition, and contested title disputes. We also assist clients with real property transfers, deeds, and contracts, including financing agreements and other secured transactions as needed. This transactional work is more straightforward and usually not adversarial, but can involve complex issues or consequences arising from the creation of tenancies in common and the like that if a client does not understand up front can create unforeseen issues down the road that are best either avoided or at least appreaciated and planned for at the outset.
Bankruptcy
My office has filed hundreds of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 consumer bankruptcy petitions for our clients. If you qualify, it is almost inevitably the best, the most affordable, and the most beneficial remedy available if you are struggling with any appreciable burden of debt, or need to block a foreclosure. Most of my Chapter 7 clients’ credit scores come back to the mid-600s within 12-18 months of filing with no new negative reporting, and they are then able to obtain credit again and continue to rebuild and repair their credit rating after receiving their fresh-start discharge of their previous debts, usually in a much quicker timeframe than if they had not availed themselves of their rights under the Bankruptcy laws.
Landlord & Tenant Law
Another subset of consumer law, this area is governed by the Texas Property Code, and in a city like Austin, Texas, with as many students and rental properties as we have, there is a tremendous amount of need and litigation surrounding both residential and commercial leases. Oftentimes a landlord will take advantage of their tenants by using extra-contractual or statutorily prohibited means of self-help or redress for any number of non-substantive perceived breaches of a rental agreement. On the other hand, some tenants will take advantage of their landlords and are serial evictees, just riding out the process of appeals for however many months they can to live rent-free. This office has litigated cases for both landlords and tenants, depending on who is in the right in a given situation. It is essential for both parties to understand their rights and obligations under the law, whether that involves drafting a new lease for landlords to use that conforms to the letter of the law, teaching them the required steps to take to mitigate their damages in cases of breach or early termination, or educating tenants on the steps they must take to recover their security deposits.
Wills, Estate Planning & Probate
There was really no natural reason for my practice to branch into this area, other than the fact that these documents are something everyone needs, and few people know attorneys who can actually provide them, so I kept on getting requests from friends and neighbors, and finally started providing this service as well. If you’re so wealthy that you have to find other things to do with your assets than just leave them to your children or favorite charities then you should go with a firm that specializes only in estate planning and pay the fees associated with setting up trusts or related legal entities to avoid estate taxes or create your own foundations. But if, like most of us, you only need to make sure that your assets will pass to your heirs without having to pass through contested hearings in probate court – while making sure your children and favorite charities receive what you intend to leave them – then our firm offers an affordable, quality alternative. Effective estate planning really requires setting up a “living will” or “advanced directives” as well, so your loved ones aren’t left to make decisions regarding the kind of treatment you’d like to receive if you are suffering from an acute terminal illness or in a persistent vegetative state, and we can provide these documents, along with power-of-attorney documents, for a small additional fee that is well worth the peace-of-mind they can help to ensure.
Additionally, for some clients, we also discuss alternate ways to bypass probate altogether, such as ladybird deeds or trusts, depending on their needs and situation, which may have advantages for qualifying for certain types of assistance, shielding assets, minimizing tax liability, and avoiding claims against a probate estate.
OUR STAFF
Brian Guequierre
attorney
Tel: 512.454.7900
Jubilee Guequierre
chief accountability officer
Tel: 512.454.7900
BONA FIDES
Bio: Brian Guequierre (pronounced “jig”+“air”)
I attended the University of Texas for both my undergraduate degree in English Literature, and my Doctor of Jurisprudence in Law. Since graduating in 1998 with my JD I clerked for a session on the Court of Criminal Appeals – the Texas Supreme Court for criminal law - which was a generally unpleasant but valuable experience, and then worked for two hours at a mid-size firm before realizing definitively that I could never be happy working for someone else. In law school you’re taught over and over again that “your position on any given issue is determined the moment your client walks through your door” – meaning that your job is to advocate on the client’s behalf regardless of how you feel about the underlying moral or philosophical issues at play. I could never accept that and realized the only way I could ensure that I did not have to compromise my own beliefs or integrity was to be my own boss, start my own firm, and take only cases I believed in for clients I wanted to help and felt I could work with.
That’s what I’ve been doing ever since, and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. My practice has grown and sustained itself this whole time without any advertising or even a yellow-pages listing, only through word-of-mouth referrals and the Travis County Bar Association’s referral program, and I’ve largely been able to hire friends and neighbors, which has been nice, getting to work with people I enjoy. I'm very proud of several of my former clerks who have gone on to become outstanding attorneys themselves, even though it's hard to replace good clerks, and looking back on it makes me feel old... I am licensed to practice in both state and federal courts, and have litigated both bench and jury trials at all levels of these courts, including appeals, with much success. After ten years in practice, I finally decided I should probably put up a sign in front of my office & after another six I finally got around to building this website for the practice, just to make it easier for people to find us, and so when they Google me something will come up besides random case settings, soccer, and Baha’i hits. I’m an active soccer player and coach, and an active member of the Baha’i Faith, but neither one of those things is very informative for prospective clients, which really hasn’t mattered much, due to the large percentage of word-of-mouth referrals I’ve had. That said, after 16 years without one, I decided to go ahead and conform to some basic societal and business norms, so here it is… ;)
I live in East Austin a block away from my office with my beautiful wife in the old craftsman style cottage bungalow where we raised our three wonderful children, whose teams I coached in the local soccer rec-league at Hancock for 14 years, which was a great way to get to know the neighborhood kids and families, in addition to the fact that our kids went to the local AISD schools they were zoned for, which we loved. We have one still at McCallum, one freshman Longhorn, and one who graduated from Colby way up in Maine and is currently living & working in Manhattan, right above Sesame Street on Broadway. She traded Willie Nelson for Kermit the Frog, even though Willie's version of "The Rainbow Connection" is indisputably superior. Kids these days... but she did say Willie brought her to tears a couple times last summer when we saw him live at the Whitewater Amphitheater out in New Braunfels, so there's still hope Texas could reclaim her one day.
Our clients tell me they like being able to pull up and park without having to worry about meters or garages, but we're still very central and convenient to access, and only a couple miles from downtown and all the courthouses, right on the edge of the (still) growing Mueller development. The tortoise below, "Donk", rest-in-peace, was the office mascot, we had him for 25 years, before he passed during the thaw after the snowpocalypse, when he kept emerging from his heated house. He was a part of the menagerie of exotic critters that call our neighborhood home, and a beloved fixture of Delwood II. There's a little memorial for him out back. The new office mascots, Gus and Cal, named after the rangers from Lonesome Dove, can be found below Donk, and our process server, on patrol, if you scroll down.
Keep your eyes peeled and drive safely here, and be on the lookout for peacocks, goats, chickens, and guinea hens - not to mention plenty of kids. This little part of Austin really feels like a small town at times, or an old-fashioned neighborhood, and I really enjoy working with so many of my neighbors and kids' classmates, not just in soccer and with my practice but also with the the junior youth service program that we helped host and support for 8 years or so, with a bunch of the kids from the neighborhood, helping them find their own paths to be of service to their communities. Lots of those kids are graduating from college now and doing amazing things themselves and that's really a treat for us to watch and enjoy as well. Nowadays if I bump in to a lot of these folks it's at ABP, the bouldering gym, which is a sport I followed my kids in to and which is a lot of fun as well.
I'm also an avid skateboarder, surfer, waterman, and naturalist, and have traveled and worked throughout parts of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. I am a Canadian by birth, American by naturalization, and a world citizen by choice.
CONTACT
The Law Offices of Brian Cooper Guequierre, PLLC
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