Chantel C. Wonder

Overview

Chantel Wonder represents businesses in hospitality litigation, consumer financial services disputes, general liability and property matters, and employment defense. Having spent nearly a decade as in-house litigation counsel, she brings a personal understanding to her work as outside counsel: she has been the client. She understands the pressures facing a company’s legal team and the need for advice that accounts for the business behind the lawsuit.

Chantel manages hospitality litigation across multiple jurisdictions, coordinating strategy with clients, insurers, franchisees, and other defense counsel. Her work encompasses claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), premises liability, negligent security, and disputes arising from hotel operations. She addresses franchise relationships, ownership and control, agency, indemnification, and risk transfer, developing case-specific defenses while promoting consistency and efficiency across related matters.

In consumer financial services, Chantel represents debt buyers, creditors, debt collectors, financial institutions, and other financial services companies in individual and class actions involving debt collection, credit reporting, and federal and state consumer-protection laws. Her experience includes matters under the FDCPA, FCCPA, FCRA, TCPA, and FDUTPA, as well as bankruptcy-related litigation and regulatory and commercial disputes. Her courtroom experience includes jury trials, hundreds of bench trials, and appeals in state and federal courts.

Chantel's broader defense practice includes premises liability, property damage, first-party insurance claims, construction and code defects, and contractual disputes. She also represents employers before the EEOC and in court in discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wage-and-hour, accommodation, and restrictive-covenant matters. Across these practices, Chantel's approach is straightforward: learn the client’s business, communicate candidly about risk, and build a strategy around what the client needs. She strives to become a trusted resource clients can turn to as legal and business challenges arise.

Experience

• Defended a docket of more than 100 TVPRA claims in the Eastern District of Texas, Southern District of Ohio, and other courts nationwide
• Obtained summary judgment for an employer in a WARN Act action in Texas federal court (2026)
• Defended an employer against a religious discrimination claim in Texas federal court, securing a favorable settlement (2026)
• Prosecuted franchise contract disputes in Florida, Texas, and California
• Defended a franchisor against contract claims in a state-court bench trial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (2026)
• Defended employers in multiple EEOC administrative proceedings
• Defended a large international retail brand in a TCPA class action, securing a favorable settlement
• Represented business clients in responding to state and federal administrative investigations
• Obtained a favorable jury verdict for a debt buyer in Florida in December 2024 and subsequently recovered the client’s attorneys’ fees

Publications

• Author, “Twelfth Edition Business Litigation in Florida,” The Florida Bar, July 2, 2024
• Author, “Appeals Court Affirms MSJ for Contact Center in ADA Case,” AccountsRecovery.net, March 8, 2021
• Author, “CFPB Releases Small Entity Compliance Guide for Debt Collection Rule,” AccountsRecovery.net, February 1, 2021

Professional

• Member, Association of Credit and Collection Professionals (ACA) International, 2023 to Present
• Member, Florida Small Claims Rules Committee, 2017 – 2023
  • Vice Chair, 2022 – 2023
• Member, Florida Creditors’ Bar Association, 2011 to Present
  • Past President, 2017 – 2018
  • Board Member, 2016 – 2018
• Member, Hillsborough Bar, 2017 to Present
• Member, National Creditors Bar Association, 2017 to Present