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4/1/2002
Grove Hill lawyer involved in Nashville, TN class action suit that could have National impact. A Grove Hill lawyer is on the legal team of class action suits that could have a national impact on black consumers if their cases prevail in the federal courts.Gil Gilmore is co-counsel in the class action lawsuits in Tennessee against the lending companies of major automobile manufacturers. One of those lawsuits, against Nissan Motors Acceptance Corp., is set for trial in August. Other lawsuits are pending against General Motors Acceptance Corp. And Chrysler's and Toyota's credit companies.Gilmore, who owns a plane and is a pilot, has been flying to Nashville almost weekly for over two years working on the case. He and his family have decided to move to Nashville for a year and rent a home while this case and others are progressing."I've been going up there regularly. Now I'm just going to reverse things and start spending nights there and have my family with me, " Gilmore said. "Contrary to any rumors, I'm not closing my practice here and I'm not moving permanently."His sister Wylynn Gilmore Phillippi, and his brother, Rica Gilmore, along with Lamar Johnson and Hardie Kimbrough, will continue to work out of the Grove Hill office.Gilmore said he and his wife, Cindy, decided the change would be good for their children, Will, twins Leigh and Sarah, and Vivian. They will go to school in the Nashville area and the family will be able to use the Tennessee rental home as a base for seeing and doing things in different parts of the country.The family isn't moving any furniture and will be returning to their home here at different times of the year.Too, Gilmore said he has cases set for trial in different counties in Alabama in July and August and said that he will be coming back to Grove hill regularly to handle them."Joanna [JoAnna Pugh, his secretary] and I correspond constantly by email and we will continue to do so. I'm not even hiring a secretary in Nashville; JoAnna will still be handling my business via the Internet," he said.Gilmore is excited about the cases and said there is overwhelming evidence that many of the automobile industry's credit companies have long discriminated against black people nationwide.The suits allege that the corporations violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a federal law, hence the reason for the cases being filed in federal courts.The Wall Street Journal in an article in 2000 quoted a study that showed that African-Americans pay an average $461.97 per auto loan more than whites with similar credit ratings.News stories on the subject indicate that the finance companies encouraged dealers to inflate the costs of car loans for customers they thought would pay higher rates. The finance companies and the dealerships then split the additional revenue.Under this incentive system, blacks were charged considerably more than whites, a violation of federal law. Gilmore said the plaintiff side has statistics and data to back up its argument that blacks were discriminated against through the higher rates.How did a south Alabama lawyer from Grove Hill get involved in such a high profile case?Gilmore has successfully sued Life of Georgia in behalf of an elderly black client and won a substantial judgment that caught the attention of Clint Watkins in Nashville who was pursuing the automobile credit cases for a black client.Gilmore described Watkins as a "brilliant attorney" who called and asked for his help because of his success on the insurance case.That was in 1998. Gilmore in 1999 obtained a license to practice law in Tennessee.Gilmore said that the U.S. Justice Department had indicated during the Clinton administration sympathy and willingness to intervene on behalf of the plaintiffs but after George W Bush took office last year that cooperation ceased. Gilmore said Bush was one of the most "pro business and anti consumer" presidents ever.Watkins, Gilmore and Michael Terry, also of Nashville, have been joined by the New York firm of Bernstein Litowit Berger and Grossmann. The firm represented plaintiffs in the landmark Texaco race discrimination case.The National Consumer Law Center in Boston, MA, A consumer advocacy group, has joined the plaintiffs.The implications are enormous. The New York Times has reported that there were more than $450 billion in car loans outstanding in 1998. In 2000, about half of the 17.7 million new vehicles expected to be sold would be financed, the newspaper reported. More than 75 percent of those loans would be arranged through car dealerships.The Nissan suit seeks recovery of losses for the past 11 years. Gary Klein of the National Consumer Law Center said the courts would set the amount of penalties that would be distributed to all black car buyers. He said the Nissan and General Motor loans for the past 11 years could be $100 million or more.Gilmore said he is confident the case can be won at the U.S. District Court level but worries about the certain appeals, especially a final appearance before a Republican-stacked, pro business U.S. Supreme Court.On Sept. 11 of last year Gilmore and the other attorneys were in Chicago attending a meeting in the Sears Tower with the World Trade Center was struck by terrorists. The Democrat reported the Grove Hill attorney's whereabouts since the Sears Tower was feared as a potential target along with his problem getting home because of flight bans.But it wasn't until Gilmore was interviewed for this story the he had met with black activist Jesse Jackson at his Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in the Sears Tower."Jesse Jackson is very interested in this case and its outcome," Gilmore said without elaborating further on the meeting.Gilmore did say that the attacks of Sept.11 were a setback to the cases but that they are apparently back on track now.Whatever the eventual outcome, the Gilmore family will enjoy a year living in Nashville while Gil Gilmore pursues the cases.By Jim Cox
The Clarke County Democrat
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