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New Charges Against Budget Rent-A-Car in Class Action Suit

18 December 1998

New Charges Against Budget Rent-A-Car in a Class Action Suit Filed In Michigan by Charfoos & Christensen

    DETROIT, Dec. 17 -- Budget Rent-A-Car, which was accused of
gouging Michigan consumers in a Class Action lawsuit filed in Wayne County
Circuit Court by J. Douglas Peters and Ann Mandt of Detroit's Charfoos &
Christensen law firm in October, 1997, is now charged with discriminating
against minorities based on information discovered in the original suit.
    The class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of Sandra Daniels, Leander
Chatman, and Robert Greason accuses Budget of setting rental rates based on
the renter's residential zip code.  The Plaintiffs are all African-Americans.
They, like thousands of other Detroit residents, were charged more for their
rentals, simply because of where they lived.  They lived in zip code areas
populated primarily by African Americans.
    "As we investigated this case, we discovered that, even though Budget
claims this practice did not target minorities, about 84% of the consumers who
were actually overcharged, were African-American," said Ann Mandt, attorney
for the Plaintiffs.  "It appears that when it actually came to hitting
consumers in the wallet, Budget made certain that minorities were hit."  Based
upon this information, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Stephens
recently granted the Plaintiffs' request to add charges of violations of
Michigan's Civil Rights laws to the complaint against Budget Rent-A-Car Co.
    Shortly after receiving the first lawsuit from the Charfoos & Christensen
firm, Budget stopped its zip code based pricing.  "We're happy we were able to
get this one discriminatory practice stopped by filing this lawsuit," said
attorney Peters.  "But we still intend to make sure that Budget is accountable
to all of the citizens of Detroit who were ripped off by this practice.  This
kind of conduct cannot and will not be tolerated in Detroit or Michigan.  The
law says that discrimination is illegal and Budget Rent-A-Car will have to
answer to a jury in Wayne County for their conduct."