FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2026 filing
Jack in the Box litigation history
What Jack in the Box disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2026 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
- 10
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $5.5M
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- Disclosed
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2026
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
Pending: Philippines case (won at trial, concluded); Marilyn Garner trustee (appellate ruling in company favor, TX Supreme Court petition pending); AJP/NHG (WA, March 2025); Gulf Coast Jacks (CA, Dec 2025); JIB v Wazny/Chopra (marketing fee collection). Concluded: Rehkopf gift card (settled 2016); NFA (settled 2020); San-Tex Restaurant (settled 2021); Aslam Group (settled 2021, JIB paid $5.55M); Ibrahim Investment Corp (settled 2021, JIB paid $25K).
Disclosed in the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 4: bankruptcy
Officer disclosure only: Ryan Ostrom (Chief Brand Officer) and Steven Piano (Chief People Officer) were employees of GNC Holdings, Inc. when it filed Chapter 11 on June 23, 2020. GNC Holdings is unrelated to the franchisor.
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Multiple active litigation cases across multiple states (Philippines, Texas, Washington) plus historical pattern of franchisee disputes suggests systemic franchisor-franchisee relationship issues
- Going Concern status = False (company reported going concern doubts), indicating financial instability at corporate level
- Heavy litigation history including class actions (gift cards), franchisee association suits, and multi-state disputes suggests pattern of enforcement/transparency problems
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?