FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2025 filing
Intelligent Assistant litigation history
What Intelligent Assistant disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. Item 3 lists the material legal actions a franchisor must report; Item 4 covers bankruptcy. This is the franchisor's own disclosure, not a court record, and not legal advice.
Items 3 & 4 at a glance
What the filing discloses
- Cases disclosed
- 3
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $5K
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- None
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2025
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
Item 3 discloses no pending litigation against IA Franchising. However, restrictive orders against affiliates: (1) FTC injunction against Signarama/Speedy Sign-A-Rama (1998) re earnings misrepresentations; (2) Signarama Maryland consent order (1996) re unregistered sales; (3) TGG/GCZ California consent orders (2021-2022) re unregistered franchise sales and pre-opening fee collection violations. No bankruptcy disclosed in Item 4.
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Going concern status is FALSE — indicates the franchisor itself may be financially unstable or operationally uncertain
- Extensive litigation history spanning 29 years (1993 FTC injunction, Maryland 1996, California 2021 & 2022) suggests chronic compliance issues with franchise sales practices and potential predatory patterns
- 35-year term is unusually long and locks franchisees into relationship with litigation-prone franchisor for over 3 decades
The verdict grade is FranchiseVerdict's editorial assessment across SBA loan performance, unit growth, revenue and disclosure signals. It is not investment advice.
Before you weigh a lawsuit
How to read Item 3
A franchisor must disclose pending actions and any material civil action involving the franchise relationship, plus convictions or civil judgments for fraud, unfair or deceptive practices, or franchise-law violations, going back ten years. A case the franchisor brought against a franchisee counts too. Item 3 does not include every dispute: settled claims below the materiality line and matters resolved in private arbitration can be absent.
Questions worth asking current and former franchisees, using the contact list in Item 20:
- Were you, or anyone you know in the system, party to a dispute with the franchisor?
- Was it resolved by settlement, arbitration or a court, and on what terms?
- Has the number of disputes gone up or down since you signed?