Hertz Corp. faces more complaints that customers were arrested at gunpoint because of disputed reports that they stole the cars they’d rented, a problem the company’s new chief executive has been vowing to eradicate, Bloomberg News reported. Lawyers suing Hertz say they’re preparing to file about 100 new claims, a move that would boost the total of false arrest allegations to more than 300 and complicate efforts to resolve a legal fight playing out in federal court. The new claims are an early challenge for Chief Executive Officer Stephen Scherr, who took over in February and pledged this month that Hertz would change its practices to protect customers who’ve done nothing wrong from false arrests. Currently, at least 230 customers say in court papers that Hertz improperly called in police, mostly while the company was haggling with them about overdue rentals. A small number of cases, including two new claims, allege errors by Hertz employees caused police to pull over innocent customers on suspicion of driving stolen cars. The lead attorney for customers is Francis Alexander Malofiy, a Philadelphia lawyer who has spent years fighting Hertz in court. He says many new clients have come to him in the months since news about the false arrest lawsuits became public. The new claims will be filed in the next few weeks, Malofiy said. Most will land in front of a federal judge in Wilmington, Delaware where the company reorganized in bankruptcy as the pandemic began to hurt the economy in 2020. Hertz left bankruptcy protection in June, but a shell company remained behind to resolve disputed debts, including false arrest claims.
