NorVergence 1450 member Class Action Certified in New Jersey

This from the attorney representing the class action against leasing companies in the NorVergence lease matter in New Jersey, Michael Scoot Green:

"Today, September 14, 2005, in the New Jersey Superior Court, Monmouth County, in Exquisite Caterers et al. v. Popular Leasing et al., Docket No.: MON - L- 3686-04, the Honorable Robert A. Coogan, J.S.C. certified a New Jersey statewide class of consumers who signed contracts with Norvergence, Inc. for telecommunications equipment.

Norvergence filed for bankruptcy in July of 2004 in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey. The defendants in the class action are leasing companies that are seeking to enforce Norvergence contracts assigned to them by Norvergence. There were approximately 11,000 former Norvergence customers nationwide and roughly 1450 of them were in New Jersey.

" On the original hearing of Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification on June 16, 2005, Judge Coogan denied Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification for a nationwide class based on issues of predominance as to issues of choice of law, and denied a New Jersey statewide class based on numerosity.

"Today, Judge Coogan heard arguments from Counsel on Plaintiffs'

Motion for Reconsideration of their Motion for Class Certification as to a New Jersey class only. After approximately two hours of argument, Judge Coogan certified a New Jersey class as to the twenty- two defendants in the case. Plaintiffs' Counsel Gary Graifman of Kantrowitz, Goldhamer and Graifman with offices in Montvale, New

Jersey and Chestnut Ridge, New York, and Michael S. Green of Green & Pagano, LLP with offices in Milltown and Florham Park, New Jersey represented plaintiffs.

"Included among the twenty-two defendants are some of the largest leasing companies in the world, they include: CIT Technology Financing Services, Inc., Lyon Financial Services, Inc. d/b/a U.S.

Bancorp Business Equipment Finance Group, Popular Leasing USA, Inc., De Lage Landen Financial Services, Inc., and Irwin Business Finance.

Other defendants include IFC Credit Corporation, Dolphin Capital Corporation, BB&T Leasing, and Commerce Commercial Leasing.

Others include, Preferred Capital, and Information Leasing Corp., Court Square Leasing, Sterling National Bank, Alfa Financial Capital d/b/a/ OFC Capital, Studebaker Worthington Leasing, LLC, Inc., Celtic

Bank Corporation, Interchange Financial Services Corp., TCF Express Leasing, Inc., Susquehanna Patriot Commerical Leasing Company, Inc. a/k/a Patriot Commercial Leasing, FirstLease, Inc., and Crown Bank Leasing."

MICHAEL SCOTT GREEN, ESQ.

Law Offices of Michael Scott Green
86 Washington Avenue
Milltown, New Jersey 08850
Tel: (732) 390-0480

The original list of all leasing companies who had purchased NorVergence leases as of June, 2004:

1ABB Equipment Leasing CT
2 Bank One IL
3 BB&T NC
4 CCL – Commerce Commercial Leasing PA
5 Celtic Bank UT
6 Cincinnati Financial Corp. OH
7 CIT Technology Financing NJ
8 CitiCapital NY
9 Court Square Leasing PA
10 Credential Leasing PA
11 Crown Bank Leasing FL
12 De Lage Landen PA
13 Dolphin Capital FL
14 Financial Pacific WA
15 First Corporation
16 First Lease
17 Firstcorp OR
18 GE Capital CT
19 IFC Credit Corp. IL
20 ILC – Information Leasing Corp. OH
21 Insight Financial Corp IL
22 Interchange Capital NJ
23 Irwin Business IN
24 Lakeland Bank NJ
25 Liberty Bank CT
26 Madison Capital IL
27 National Penn Bank PA
28 Norvergence PA
29 OFC Capital/ALFA Financial GA
30 Patriot Leasing PA
31 Penn Bank Leasing
32 PFG Commerical Finance
33 Popular Leasing MO
34 Preferred Capital, Inc. OH
35 Primary Financial Corp. PA
36 Source One Capital
37 Sterling National Bank NY
38 Studebaker – Worthington NY
39 TFC Express Leasing RI
40 Toshiba America Info Systems CA
41 US Express Leasing NJ
42 USbancorp MN
43 Wells Fargo Financial Leasing

Many of these lessors have settled the dispute, and in 23 states plus the District of Columbia, the state's attorneys general have offered settlements with those who made complaints against several of the major leasing companies. The dates for those settlements has passed, and at this point, there is no count how many have been accepted, with the stipulation that the settlement ends all disputes.