As many of you know, after over a decade of owning SOL Pie Pizza, a person that we did not know, sued us and claimed that he was the owner of our business along with a handful of other false and ultimately disproven claims. This, of course, was untrue but the lawsuit was drug out for over 18 months and was thrown out.
Sadly, in the state of Ohio, the victim of a frivolous lawsuit is not awarded any attorney’s fees or compensation, despite being unjustly sued.
Aside from the nightmare of dealing with this, this lawsuit has put us into over $60,000 of legal debt.
At the time we were sued, we were also witnessing someone very close to us go through a legal battle with this person. It was devastating, causing a lot of financial burden and a year later, April 2, 2020, we were told this person was now going after our family and our business as well.
Questions such as, "How is this possible?" HOW and why? Questions we will never know and we pray that one day God reveals this to us.
So you do what you are supposed to do. You seek legal counsel to defend your business. A legal battle that would go on more than a year for us. We have been left feeling broken (emotionally, mentally and financially) and unheard. It was a long game that we did not want to play—but, rather, we were forced to play. We often wonder what would have happened if we didn't defend ourselves. Some tell us, that is not an option.
Unfortunately, we are in no kind of financial shape to pay this on our own, having already "borrowed" on extremely high interest credit cards and neither is SOL Pie Pizza.
Not only has this caused financial hardship on our business and family but it has brought so much stress to our three daughters as well.
We are humbly asking for your help. This is very hard for us as we can't share our whole story—maybe one day. But, after praying, we felt this is what we needed to do.
In turn, we have put together the following packages so that you can receive something for you generosity.
It has also been put strongly on our hearts to start something for small businesses who have dealt with similar situations and vulnerable targets such as widows and single moms.
We welcome any ideas if anyone else feels called to this as well.
This is a need that God has put on our heart. We have not started the planning process.
Thank you for your support and for taking the time to consider this.
We also ask for prayers, thoughts sent our way to help us in the forgiving process as there is so much anger and we know it is time to move on to the grieving so we can release, let go and accept.
Your friends,
The Frank Family
at SOL Pie Pizza
