FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2025 filing
Orkin litigation history
What Orkin 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 (litigation) & 4 (bankruptcy) at a glance
What the filing discloses
- Cases disclosed
- 2
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest settlement, franchisor's own cases
- None stated
- 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
Virginia Settlement Order (Critter Control affiliate, 2018, $23,500 penalties) and SEC Settlement Order (Rollins Inc. and former CFO Paul Northen, 2022, $8M civil penalty for Rollins plus $100K for Northen regarding earnings per share adjustments)
Item 3 (litigation) · 2 matters disclosed
Litigation cases
Parent, affiliates, master franchisor and subfranchisor
Concluded (2)
In the Matter of Rollins, Inc. and Paul Edward Northen
settledGovernment or regulatory action · Rollins, Inc. · filed 2022-04-14 · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
“SEC Settlement Order. In the Matter of Rollins, Inc. and Paul Edward Northen (“Northen”), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), Order Instituting Cease-And-Desist Proceedings Pursuant to Section 8A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Making Findings and Imposing a Cease-And-Desist Order (April 14, 2022).”Page 14 of the 2025 FDD, Item 3
Virginia Settlement Order (Critter Control)
settledGovernment or regulatory action · Critter Control · Virginia State Corporation Commission, Division of Securities and Retail Franchising · SEC-2017-00052
“Virginia Settlement Order. The Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Division of Securities and Retail Franchising has concluded as part of an investigation (Case No. SEC-2017-00052) that grounds exist to allege Critter Control violated the registration and”Page 14 of the 2025 FDD, Item 3
Outcome: “... effective as of January 25, 2018, that required: (1) Critter Control to pay to the Treasurer of Virginia $3,500 to defray the costs of investigation; (2) Critter Control to pay to the Treasurer of Virginia $20,000 in monetary penalties; (3) Critter Control to provide a copy of the Settlement Order to the two (2) Virginia franchisees that were offered and sold franchises after Critter Control’s registration had ...”
Item 3 lists the litigation the franchisor must disclose; a matter against a parent, an affiliate or a named officer is not a matter against the franchisor, and pending claims are allegations, not findings.
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Related litigation (Critter Control settlement for registration violations) suggests compliance or regulatory vulnerabilities within Rollins' pest control division
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?