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  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

News You Can Use!

COST OF DOING BUSINESS & CONSENT DECREES

Owners of businesses always get scared and "all shook up" when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food And Drug Administration (FDA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or any other similar power-wielding arm of the U.S. government comes knocking on their door. Business, in general, is afraid to take on the "Big Brother" U.S. government and feel intimidated when it comes "a knocking".

Many businesses tend to just "roll-over", give in, and pay any necessary monetary fines or penalties the government doles out just to stay out of the courts and away from the news media, no matter if they are right or wrong, innocent or guilty!

The U.S. government scares us and there is no where else to turn to. Calling an attorney to help you fight the government is costly and too many attorneys too often recommend that you "roll-over" and pay the fines just to keep your costs down.

If you do decide to fight it out in court your attorney may not even know your business well enough to put up a good fight so, of course, the attorney may recommend that you "give-in" to the government's demands, thus follow the path of least resistance. This is not because of any guilt on the part of the business owners and operators but instead it may simply be easier and just too expensive to get justice these days. It may too often be less costly to accept the penalties assessed by the government and get back to doing business.

To fight for your rights today can easily bankrupt many smaller businesses in attorneys' fees alone! Is this how our forefathers meant justice to be played out? Today, to stay in business it helps to stay out of court and out of the newspapers, so to speak. The government's threats may not even hold up in a court battle but justice may not exist for those who cannot afford to fight for justice. To go against "Big Brother" most of us just cannot afford it.

When the government forces your business to sign-off on a consent decree due to fair trade violations, like using false or misleading advertising claims, your signature on this decree or document allows the government to levy fines against the business if it ever violates the government's standards for fair trade practices in the future.

What astute business owners know is that you do not have to sign the government's consent decree! Even attorneys may too often not even know this and may think the government will harass you even more if you do not sign it. However, this may not at all be true!

One alternative may be to NOT sign a consent decree and simply agree to comply with the government's requests. This way you may be able to avoid the government's federal fines and its wrath in the future.

If you do sign a consent decree you can be assured Big Brother will harass you because then it can be done legally and it can also be easier to penalize you with hefty fines. Without your signatiure on a consent decree the government cannot easily fine you but it can still easily harass you.

The better solution may be to refuse to sign a consent decree but agree wholeheartedly to comply with all of the government's requests, like voluntarily cleaning up advertising claims and whatever else Big Brother wants you to comply with.

One of the USA's most successful businessmen once stated, "Signing the government's consent decree for so-called questionable business practices was the worst business decision I ever made!" He regreted ever succumbing to the governments strong-arm tactics.

One big problem is that once you sign the government's consent decree it has you exactly where it wants you....in the palm of its hand, so to speak. By not signing it Big Brother may not have gained a solid position of power or leverage against you and your company.

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