Alicia A. Baiardo

Baiardo specializes in financial services and class action cases along with privacy and data security matters.

She led a McGuireWoods team that won dismissal of the majority of claims in a potential class action accusing Wells Fargo Bank NA of collecting unearned fees for GAP insurance, guaranteed automobile protection policies that cover losses during a financing agreement. Herrera v. Wells Fargo Bank NA, 8:18-cv-00332 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 27, 2018).

The plaintiffs contended that when they paid off their finance agreements early, Wells Fargo hid its obligation to refund GAP waiver fees. “But under the agreement, people had to submit a request to cancel in writing to the entity that sold them the insurance,” Baiardo said, an obligation known legally as “conditions precedent” to obtaining a refund. U.S. District Judge James V. Selna of Santa Ana dismissed most of the claims on Sept. 1, 2020.

“Plaintiffs’ counsel went after Wells Fargo first, so other banks were watching closely to see how this case would come out,” Baiardo said. “The judge agreed with us that Wells Fargo was an indirect lender who bought the loan.”

Baiardo represented the plaintiff in a case against a company that promised to build anaerobic digesters on farms to break down animal and food waste to produce biogas and bio-fertilizer but instead absconded with the client’s multimillion-dollar investment and allegedly tried to cover up the fraud by producing fake photographs of the purported construction site. MG CH4 LLC v. Brewer, 2:18-cv-01255 (E.D. Cal., filed May 17, 2018).

For her client Baiardo obtained a pre-judgment writ of attachment to secure any funds available while the litigation was pending, they won a $5 million arbitration award plus pre-judgment interest, attorney fees and arbitration costs.

Baiardo’s work on the case included a visit to a dairy farm near Fresno where the digester was supposed to be built. “It was a worthwhile field trip, in a case where I moonlighted on the plaintiff’s side.”

— John Roemer