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Budget Rent-A-Car Ordered to Turn Over Accident Info In Discrimination Suit

16 March 1999

Budget Rent-A-Car Ordered to Turn Over Accident Info In a Discrimination Class Action Suit, Reports Charfoos & Christensen

    DETROIT, March 15 -- Budget Rent-A-Car, which was accused of
gouging Michigan consumers and discriminating against minorities 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, was
ordered to turn over accident information by 3/19/99.
    The suit accuses Budget of setting rental rates based on the renter's
residential zip code.  Plaintiff, Sandra Daniels, an African American resident
of Detroit, was charged almost 4x as much as a white suburban male for a
weekend rental.  Budget claimed they charged people based on their residential
zip codes because of accident rates.  However, they have repeatedly refused to
turn over any accident information.
    Judge Cynthia Stephens of Wayne County Circuit Court, who had twice
previously ordered Budget to comply with discovery, ordered them to turn over
the accident information by 3/19/99.  "What Budget has done in this lawsuit is
the same thing big corporations do whenever they get caught doing something
improper," said attorney, Ann Mandt.  "They refuse to answer questions or
produce documents, they disobey court orders and generally try to obstruct the
discovery process any way they can.  They took millions of dollars from
Detroit consumers and we intend to make them answer every single question and
produce every single document or we'll be back in court," said Mandt.