RLI wins over BNI in court. As I shared briefly on Friday RLI won a huge victory in court for ALL BNI members who have ever signed a non-compete form (under the guise of it being a "leadership" form). After two years of threats from "some" BNI executive directors that they would sue their former members for joining RLI one actually tried to do so in Knoxville TN. Dan Rawls had his former members served with a lawsuit during their weekly RLI meeting. It asked the court to bar them from meeting for any reason and sought damages. The judge ruled that Dan Rawls had NO legal standing to sue since the agreement was between BNI corporate and the members NOT the executive director and the members. Before the ruling was even handed down the judge voiced his concern that one of the defendents in the case was an RLI member who is an attorney that practices in his court. When faced with the fact that the case might be set aside on those grounds the BNI attorney immediately asked if they could take the attorney off as a defendent and "just" sue the other 8 RLI members. In other words it would be ok for the attorney to continue in RLI after signing "the" form but not the other 8. A clear example of discrimination to serve their purpose. At the end of the day the ruling was that NO executive director could ever sue a former member for signing this rediculous form. So if you have kept yourself from joining RLI for fear of retribution it is now settled for all BNI members and you are free to join. FREEDOM of choice as been restored for thousands of people. The little guys wins, God Bless America. Oh BTW it appears that certain franchises are now for sale, interesting.