Ever get strong armed by an old roommate who didn’t pay their share of the bills or by someone who owes you money?  As of Sept. 8, the first ever purely online settlement service called onedaydecisions.com will be launched. The website will help both parties resolve the issue.

A Sonoma State alum, Ricky Frankel, is one of the founding members of onedaydecisions.com and is the current vice president of operations.  His father, Rob Frankel, a branding consultant is the other founding member.

“Court costs are expensive and take up a lot of your time, but with One Day Decisions, you can privately settle for a low fee,” said Ricky Frankel.

One Day Decisions works like this; a party fills out a form on the website, emails the opposing party the private offer, the opposing party can either accept or deny the offer.  Once the offer is accepted, a $49 fee is applied to each party, and the defendant pays the amount by credit card and a check is received by the plaintiff within seven to 10 days.  If an offer is denied three times, settlement opportunity is cancelled and no charge for either party.

“One Day Decisions is not a mediation, arbitration or a collection agency. It is not an adjudication service,” said Ricky Frankel. “It’s a settlement service for people who want to settle their disputes inexpensively, in as little as one day, from the comfort of their home, online, via desktop or mobile device.”

No more filing with the courts, no more court fees or lawyer fees; the decision is up to the parties involved, not a judge or lawyer who can sometimes receive a high percentage of the settlement amount.

“I just spent about two months in a settlement dispute with the old homeowners over a leaky shower in my house,” said business major graduate Christopher Mainaris.  “I could have attempted One Day Decisions and left all the middlemen out of it.”

Ricky Frankel graduated from Sonoma State in May of 2014 with political science degree.  His intentions were to go to law school after graduation but instead stayed home with his dad to come up with the idea for One Day Decisions.  

Frankel was a member of the Pre-Law Society at Sonoma State and served as treasurer during his junior year and as president his senior year.