The Federdal Trade Commission corruption and the real story about Attorney Jack Schrold's fight against Unfair Credit Reporting Practices.

1. JACK SCHROLD, ESQ.
“MY FIGHT AGAINST UNFAIR CREDIT
REPORTING”
The True Story of One Lawyer’s Battle
Against Mega-Corporations, Lobbyists and
the Government.

2. This is my story.
Fortunately, the 50,000 plus clients that were assisted between 1993 and 2002 already know
this tale. Hundreds of legal colleagues, mortgage brokers, bankers, real estate agents, local
consumer protection agencies, accountants and legislators also know the truth.
Unfortunately, it has been over 12years since this chapter of my life ended. New clients and
business associates have come into my life without the past knowledge of my adventure in the
1990’s and my battle for fair and accurate credit reporting. It is time for me to provide
potential clients and new friends with the real facts. I do this not for sympathy but for
clarification.
In 1993, I graduated from Nova Southeastern Law School. Unlike most law students, I had no
desire to work for a large firm slaving away with a primary objective being ‘billable’ hours. My
background was in journalism and marketing. Unless I found something that I was passionate
about I would return to these endeavors without any regrets.
About six months after opening a small law practice I was introduced to a legal problem that
was affecting a considerable number of local residents in South Florida. Real estate agents and
mortgage brokers independently solicited my help with clients that could not qualify for a loan
due to a ‘bad’ credit report. My first response was simple.
“They didn’t teach us anything about credit reports in law school!”
I promised that I would look into the law and see if I could research any case law on the subject.
After a quick stint at the law library (yes we still had real libraries!), I determined that the Fair
Credit Reporting Act and a few minor state statutes governed this area of the law. Very few
cases existed since few people were not willing to push the big credit agencies into compliance.
Why was this the case since it was obvious that a lot of people apparently had erroneous,
outdated and completely false entries on their reports?
Lawyers were not willing to handle such ‘trivial’ legal issues without charging the client a large
retainer. Those hated ‘billable’ hour firms rearing their ugly head again. I decided that this was
exactly the type of niche I was looking for. I could possibly help hundreds of people fight back
against the mega corporations that stored and sold individual credit reports. I quickly learned
that these reports were holding people back from buying a family home, higher education, car
loans, opening bank accounts and renting property (residential and commercial). The data was
ruining lives and putting a halt to the lifestyles and earning potential of people around the
country.
Early on I reached out directly in an attempt to have conversations with the credit reporting
agencies to find a reasonable solution to the ongoing erroneous credit report problem. I was
stone walled and told repeatedly that everything needed to be challenged in writing. My team
developed a system to handle the huge task of reconciliation between the responses from the

3. agencies, client correspondence and the deletions due to our demands for proof of debts,
charge backs, etc. Since the law in this area was scarce, we determined that an ‘innocent until
proven guilty’ approach was necessary. If the agencies were going to ruin a person’s life they
should be able to satisfy the demands for proof of the accuracy for each entry. Until this time
frame there were absolutely no ‘checks and balances’ in this industry. Millions upon millions of
dollars were made selling the reports but no government agency took an interest in policing the
Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Over the next five years I was a guest on radio and television programs discussing the plight of
people affected by the credit reporting agency negligence. Little did I know that as I helped
more clients and placed the spotlight on this issue, it would bring the wraith of billion dollar
companies and government agencies to bear on my family, business and employees.
Over my nine year run I helped over 50,000 clients across the entire nation. I charged a
nominal fee for services and provided refunds whenever asked. I had walls with ‘thank you
cards’, letters and plaques presented to me for the ‘fight’ that endured on behalf of every
client. 50,000 clients and no bar complaints and hundreds of referrals from United States
Senators and Representatives offices daily. It sounds like a dream situation for any attorney. I
made an impact and built a business all at the same time. Too bad the story didn’t end here.
Until 1999 I was a mere fly on the wall of the credit reporting agencies. Then they realized how
much work they were forced to do because of my demands on each client case. Yes, they had
to actually verify the facts associated with negative entries on thousands of reports. Imagine
having to ensure that the claims made against a person’s character were true! They found a
solution to avoid doing the actual work. It was brilliant from a strategic point of view.
Just make it impossible to get legal help and all that extra work would go away!
In 1999 congress passed a law without getting any input from citizens or lawyers like myself
that were handling credit reporting problems. It was called the Credit Reporting Organizations
Act. It was quietly voted in and became law without any public hearings whatsoever. I was
helping thousands of people and was never asked to appear before congress on the proposed
law. The Act was designed for one purpose. The language attempted to shut down every law
firm, credit repair company and credit consulting business in the country. How could they
accomplish this task since the Fair Credit Reporting Act was still in existence?
The new law essentially took away the right to charge a fee for assisting anyone with ‘credit
repair services’ until the work was completed. The credit industry and its lobbyists assumed
that no law firm or consultant would work for free. With this new law in hand the Federal
Trade Commission swooped down on every entity that assisted people with credit related
problems. Fines ensued and the majority of small non-lawyer service providers went out of
business. My company paid a fine and complied with all of the new rules. No warnings were
issued since the law went into effect for the sole purpose of attacking everyone aiding
consumers.

4. How could I continue to fight for the rights of these people that were now flocking to my firm
by the thousands for help when I could not charge an upfront fee? With over 125 law firm
employees I could not wait six months or more to bill a client for services rendered.
My management team and hired outside counsel reviewed the language of the law for weeks.
Then we made an astonishing revelation. The ‘work’ we did for each client started with the
arrival of correspondence from each credit bureau and was completed with a new set of letters
being issued back to each bureau. The time of this cycle of correspondence, review and
response was approximately one month. Therefore we COMPLETED the contracted work on a
monthly basis!
Our entire business model changed to accommodate the new law by charging a nominal
monthly service fee ($49) for the work completed.
How did this affect my business?
The clients absolutely loved the pre-set cost of service and I knew exactly how much revenue
that would be generated each month.
Congress, lobbyists and the FTC made my business even stronger!
Over the next few years I was able to reach out to even more people and solve their credit
reporting misery. The credit reporting companies were furious that the Act made my business
explode with more clients. I continued to reach out to them offering solutions to the ever
expanding correspondence and work load. They refused to listen or have any dialog on the
subject.
After a few years I received a formal letter from the FTC that they would be sending a team to
investigate my operation. I gave this ‘right’ to them when I signed the paperwork during the
first go around after the Act was signed. This was a big mistake on my part. If I fought the Act
initially the rest of this story would have turned out very different. I received extremely bad
legal advice. I look to avoid conflict and thought that paying a fine and signing the documents
would allow me to move forward. Unfortunately, the documents provided the FTC with a
license to do anything without regard for the law.
This time it was not a pleasant conversation or minor fine. My defiance of this unconstitutional
law that limited a person’s ability to hire an attorney was going to result in a massive attack
against my law firm and my employees. I was confident that I had nothing to hide since I was
abiding by the letter of the law and charging a monthly fee for the services completed in the
prior month.
The next year of my life was like a television movie. Every two months agents from the FTC,
Department of Justice and their assistants showed up at my office copying files and

5. sequestering individual employees trying to get them to crack. At one point the agents visiting
from Washington D.C told us that they loved this assignment since they could come back down
and hang out at the beach whenever they felt like it! I was dragged through countless
depositions repeating the same policies and facts over and over again.
The witch hunt was real and I unknowingly placed a giant bulls eye on my chest by actually
representing the rights of over 50,000 people. A Department of Justice attorney (who later
became a judge in Broward County) appeared at the end of a deposition in Fort Lauderdale.
The four hour grilling was completed and I once again tried to extend an olive branch by stating
that I was more than willing to work towards a solution that allowed me to continue to help my
clients. The DOJ attorney thought that the court reporter stopped the tape. He jumped up and
screamed that they would only be happy when I was completely out of business and that he did
not give a damn about my clients or their problems. He proceeded to follow us out of the room
and to the elevator yelling at the top of his lungs.
After months of looking for a ‘smoking gun’ they found none. After another deposition I spoke
off the record with a high ranking FTC official who admitted that my monthly fee ‘work around’
could be legitimized by a court and that outcome was ‘scary’ for the FTC and the credit
reporting industry.
A year later my health, finances and family life were in distress. It was obvious that I could not
continue fighting the power of a corrupt government agency that was only interested in
protecting the mega money of the credit reporting companies. I had the weight of 125
employees, my children and friends begging me to take care of my welfare and walk away.
I will never forget the day I called all of our employees into the file room and announced that I
was going to resign and agree to never work in the credit repair industry again. The FTC quickly
drew up an agreement that had a monetary penalty with a considerable number of zeroes (of
course this was a suspended punishment designed for publicity only). They got what they
wanted by having a press release that would scare other lawyers from attempting to help
people with credit issues.
I agreed to a ‘self-suspension’ of my Florida Bar license to give myself a chance to figure out my
health concerns and the time to evaluate the last 10 years of my life and what might lie ahead. I
was not sure that any return to the practice of law was in my future. I was distraught over the
horrible consequences of having made a real impact on the lives of so many people and the
government that sided with the ‘money’ and power.
About two years went by before I was contacted by several attorney colleagues that convinced
me that my passion for helping others was sorely missed in South Florida. They told me that
they had contacted the governor of Florida (Jeb Bush) and told him about my plight. They
explained that I stood up for thousands when no one else would take up the fight and was left
holding the bag against these evil corporate entities that used our government to silence my

6. efforts. Within two days of sending a letter similar to this document to the governor, I was
contacted by his office. He heard the pleas and did his own investigation about my battle.
By the end of the week I received a phone call indicating that I would be getting something by
FEDEX from the Florida Bar. The overwhelming facts of my case, client testimonials and
support convinced the governor to go to bat for me beyond my wildest dreams.
A week later I was at a meeting at the Florida Bar office in Fort Lauderdale and reinstated to full
active status without having to retake the Bar Exam or fulfill any other obligations!
In conclusion, I will never be able to forget the thousands of people I was able to help. I still get
messages, notes and phone calls telling me about how their lives were forever impacted due to
the service that I provided. Unfortunately, my life was also impacted by having the ‘FTC Civil
Suit’ follow me through my professional and personal life.
Now I bring this same passion to defending criminal clients, record expungements, real estate
closings and personal injury cases. If you are interested in retaining an attorney that is not just
interested in ‘billable’ hours I am still here.
Practicing law requires the ability to fight for clients when no one else is willing to do it.
Sometimes that means fighting against powerful companies and even the United States
government. This is my story and I am proud that I upheld my integrity by representing clients
against injustice.
I can be reached by email (Schrold.law@gmail.com) or through my website
(http://AttorneyJack.com ). If you are interested in getting a Florida criminal case expunged or
sealed visit this website (http://FloridaExpunge.com).