We have obtained a favorable ruling on behalf of a class of plaintiffs in litigation against BB&T bank for charging excessive and unfair overdraft fees.  The lawsuit was brought as a class action, but BB&T's account and cardholder agreements included arbitration clauses and class bans, and BB&T argued that the court should force the plaintiffs to proceed in individual arbitration.  We claimed that the arbitration clauses were not valid contracts because of how they were presented, the fact that customers had no meaningful choice but to agree, and the unconscionable terms which required customers to abandon their legal rights and subjected them to excessive costs.  The bank argued that after a recent case decided by the United States Supreme Court, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the court deciding our case could not hold that these arbitration clauses were unconscionable and illegal.

The Community Care Clinic of Rowan County presented the 2011 Humanitarian Award to Bill Graham on Friday night.  Many of Bill Graham's family and friends joined the Community Care Clinic in celebrating Bill's charitable spirit over dinner with a friendly roast.  We at Wallace & Graham are very proud of Bill's example.

For more details of the event, please see the Salisbury Post article available here.