RJ GAUDET & ASSOCIATES L.L.C.
"Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Archive for January, 2016
Congressional Bill Would Cripple Class Actions With New Requirements
The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), to which Mr. Gaudet belongs as a member, recently issued a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan in opposition to a Congressional bill that would cripple class actions by requiring an early showing, at the start, that all class members suffered a similar injury. Click here to read NELA’s letter. The bill would require an enormous expenditure of time and money to investigate each and every class member in a class action, some of which contain 9 million class members. This would have to be done without the benefit of discovery from the defendant.
NELA’s letter identifies the particular language in the bill that would be onerous:
Representing Oikocredit: 40-Year Banker For “Unbanked” People Around the World
In-house counsel Ben Aidam; Robert Gaudet; Deputy Director Barbara Marcussen at Oikocredit’s international headquarters in Amersfoort, the Netherlands (January 2016)
“I am proud of the work that my client, Oikocredit, performs around the world,” said Mr. Gaudet. Oikocredit, an ecumenical cooperative based in the Netherlands, recently hired Mr. Gaudet to represent Oikocredit in a loan transaction in the United States. Mr. Gaudet previously represented Oikocredit in similar transactions on which he collaborated with in-house counsel Ben Aidam and business manager Barbara Marcussen.
In January 2016, Mr. Gaudet visited Oikocredit’s international headquarters in Amersfoort where he met Mr. Aidam and Ms. Marcussen who was recently promoted to Deputy Director. Ms. Marcussen now manages a portfolio of assets in Africa. RJ Gaudet & Associates congratulates Ms. Marcussen on her promotion and vision for continued growth and pursuit of Oikocredit’s founding values.
Although it manages substantial assets, Oikocredit has stayed true to the values of its founding members, such as the World Council of Churches, to help small businesses pursue big dreams, especially in lesser developed countries. Oikocredit provides financial assistance through micro-finance, direct loans to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), and private equity investments. Over the past five years, Oikocredit’s total assets have doubled to 982 million Euros, an astonishing rate of growth.
At a 40th anniversary event in Berlin in 2015, Dr. Konrad Raiser, former General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, noted in an opening speech that the purpose of Oikocredit is to pursue social justice. The World Council of Churches endorsed the establishment of Oikocredit, in 1974, to address an unmet need. Oikocredit (which started with a different name) had just 1 million U.S. Dollars in starting capital. Since then, Oikocredit’s assets have multiplied almost 1,000 times. The field has grown with numerous Micro-Finance Institutions who, sometimes, compete among themselves.
The founding principles of Oikocredit are “justice, self-reliance, and economic empowerment for all, with a mission to alleviate conditions of poverty by providing credit and resources to the most disadvantaged, financially-excluded, ‘unbankable’ communities in the world.” Originally, these values stemmed from the faith of Oikocredit’s founding members. Today, hundreds of churches still serve as members of Oikocredit. The mission is supported by a diverse staff with different languages, races, beliefs, and nationalities. Dozens of worldwide offices, in different regions, provide local expertise.
The work of Oikocredit has affected millions of lives. In 2014 alone, Oikocredit financing supported 37 million people. Females accounted for 86 percent of all borrowers, and 50 percent of borrowers lived in rural areas. In recent years, Oikocredit expanded its scope to include renewable energy, increased numbers of SMEs, and agricultural cooperatives. Renewable energy projects enable people without electricity to obtain solar-powered lights that students can use for studying at night and which small business owners can use, e.g., for weaving cloth at night. These small, tablet-sized lights are cheaper ($50 or less) than other solar-powered lighting systems which cost more ($192).
Oikocredit collaborates with partner Thrive India to provide affordable solar-powered lights as part of a “one child one light” campaign. Oikocredit also partners with BBOXX to bundle together contracts from customers who bought solar home systems that the customers pay off through periodic payments. Those payments are used to secure notes that BBOXX DEARs sells to Oikocredit, secured by the future receivables.
Admission to U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Mr. Gaudet and his wife on New Year’s Eve in the Hague, the Netherlands, just one week after his admission into the U.S. Court of Federal Claims
In December 2015, Mr. Gaudet was admitted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. This admission will be useful for appearing in the Court to prosecute a Fair Labor Standards Act claim and to seek compensation for the victims of vaccinations.
Mr. Gaudet currently represents 290 U.S. Customs and Border Protection canine instructors with Fair Labor Standards Act claims against the U.S. Government, and this opt-in class action is being heard in the Court of Federal Claims. Mr. Gaudet works with El Paso lawyer David Kern and San Antonio lawyer Mark Greenwald on this matter. In November, Mr. Gaudet and co-counsel completed a plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment that was filed with the Court. The lawyers representing the U.S. Government in this matter work in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
As a member of this Court, Mr. Gaudet may also represent people who suffer injuries after taking vaccines. They are entitled to file claims with the Court to obtain compensation from a government-financed compensation fund. The Court of Federal Claims processes claims for vaccine injuries and, as noted above, hears cases against the U.S. Government.
Applications to the Court require letters of recommendation from two members of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims as well as a certificate of good standing from a state bar association.
Robert Gaudet represents an elderly Louisiana landowner who is being pressured to enter into a lease to drill for oil and natural gas in Lincoln Parish through fracking, which has been used in the vicinity. Fracking is a fairly new and successful method for finding natural gas. However, there is some evidence it causes water pollution and even earthquakes.
Although some Louisiana lawyers who routinely handle oil and gas leases do not think there is a serious risk of earthquakes from fracking, there is some evidence that earthquakes have resulted from fracking in various locations around the world. In Oklahoma, the American Bar Association journal recently reported there are 300 times more earthquakes, after fracking, than in the past. An HBO documentary from 2010 reported on the consequences of fracking in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wyoming where water wells were polluted and kitchen sink faucets caught fire.
Last week, Mr. Gaudet met with an Amsterdam personal injury lawyer, Antoinette Collignon-Smit Sibinga, who told him she once lived in Groningen, the Netherlands which never had earthquakes until, after fracking, Groningen now has many earthquakes. An article in the Guardian describes the damages suffered by landowners in the Groningen due to earthquakes caused by the removal of natural gas. The Groningen landowners have been offered compensation but, generally, in amounts far lower than the actual costs for them to build new houses after old structures were damaged by earthquakes.
In April 2015, a Dutch court in the Hague ordered the halting of gas production in Groningen due to earthquake concerns, according to an article published in The Globe and Mail. The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, based in the Hague, had argued to the Court that gas production caused 196 earthquakes in the region over a period of two years. The ruling required the Dutch gas company to reduce production to a minimal level. In a separate decision, a Dutch court, in 2014, ordered payment of $1.6 billion in compensation to landowners with damages caused by earthquakes induced by fracking, as reported in an online publication.
In Louisiana, oil companies can obtain an order from a Governor-appointed Commissioner of Conservation to drill on people’s land without their consent. The statutory justification is to prevent the “waste” of natural resources. If a landowner refuses to enter into a lease, then the oil company can charge the landowner three times the costs for drilling (taken out of any production) as a penalty for the landowner’s refusal to enter into a lease. Consequently, there’s immense pressure upon Louisiana landowners to enter into leases to allow fracking even though it may someday cause earthquakes.
To protect their rights, landowners have the option of refusing to enter into a lease and, if the oil company seeks a unitization order from the Commissioner, then submitting objections to the Commissioner. The Commission is required to hear objections and may determine whether, or not, to grant an oil company’s application. In their objections, landowners could raise the prospect of increased earthquakes as a reason for the Commission to deny any application to drill without the landowners’ consent. According to some local lawyers in Louisiana, unitization orders (which create a “unit” of land that a company can drill on, even without the owners’ consent) are readily granted, even when they are opposed by landowners. Will the serious consequences of fracking, i.e. earthquakes, around the world change the mind of a Commissioner? Perhaps. Landowners can always refuse to enter into a lease and submit their objections to an oil company’s subsequent application for a unitization order.
As an alternative, landowners can insert more favorable provisions into a negotiated lease to seek protection and, in the event of harm, compensation for any damages caused by any earthquakes. A negotiated lease can also contain provisions that require an oil company to use the highest and best practices and technologies for the prevention of earthquakes and remediation of the land.
On behalf of his client, Mr. Gaudet cooperates with co-counsel in seeking creative solutions to growing concerns about fracking including Jenik Radon (who previously represented the country of Georgia in negotiations against BP Oil and currently teaches at Columbia University) and legal counsel in Louisiana.
The land broker seeking the lease, Mark A. O’Neal & Associates, has sent Mr. Gaudet’s client numerous copies of a fine print lease devoid of important legal clauses (e.g. indemnification provision, damages clause) and offered a percentage of royalties; $1 per long ton for sulphur, and just 10 cents/barrel of water. The broker attached a “draft check” in the hopes that Mr. Gaudet’s client would cash it and, thereby, become bound by the fine print devoid of legal protections, which many landowners sign with little or no revisions. At one point, the broker told Mr. Gaudet there was no risk of earthquakes due to fracking in Louisiana.
