Consumer Law

Deficit Panel’s ‘Starting Point’ Plan Seeks to Ax Mortgage Interest Deduction & Cut Social Security

In a “starting point” plan, a bipartisan presidential commission asked to come up with possible ways to deal with the federal deficit is proposing to slaughter a number of sacred cows, including the home mortgage interest deduction that now applies on income tax returns. A draft released today also calls…

Nov 10, 2010 10:10 PM CST

Thousands View YouTube Depos of Title Co. Workers Whose Output Supports Foreclosures

Depositions in civil cases aren’t ordinarily viewed as popular entertainment. But recent videos of the depositions of several Florida title company employees whose work supports foreclosure cases that have been posted on YouTube by the Forrest Law Firm are attracting thousands of viewers. Among them are excerpts from depositions of…

Nov 10, 2010 8:52 PM CST

Texas Jury Awards $30M in Case Over Miscalibrated Gas Pumps

After an eight-week trial, a jury in Texas has awarded $30 million in a case over 985 miscalibrated gas pumps at SunMart stores. Although the owner of the stores, Petroleum Wholesale, denied wrongdoing, Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office brought the state deceptive trade practices suit, described the Harris County…

Nov 10, 2010 5:34 PM CST

Justices Appear Reluctant to Overturn Calif. Ruling Favoring Consumer Class Actions

U.S. Supreme Court justices appear sympathetic to a couple’s bid for class action status in a lawsuit challenging AT&T cell phone charges, according to one account of oral arguments on Tuesday. “A victory for consumers and class action litigators seemed possible on Tuesday,” the National Law Journal reports. The case…

Nov 10, 2010 1:16 PM CST

Lawyer, 71, Awaits Trial in Record Alleged $2M Theft as Guardian for Disabled Veterans

Some disabled veterans reportedly have been shorted on living expenses, as a result of a claimed record-breaking guardianship theft by a Texas lawyer. Responsible for overseeing funds of some veterans for decades, attorney Joe Phillips, 71, allegedly evaded detection for years with the help of doctored records even though his…

Nov 10, 2010 1:13 AM CST

Hospital Tries to Nix Power of Attorney After Daughter Seeks More Care for Her Mom

An adult daughter who holds a power of attorney to make medical decisions for her 86-year-old mother says Dolores Bedin, who is suffering from inoperable pancreatic cancer, isn’t strong enough to go home. But Northwestern Memorial Hospital disagrees. In an effort to get Bedin discharged, the medical center has asked…

Nov 9, 2010 3:13 PM CST

AT&T Case to Be Argued Today Could Doom Class Actions

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case today that could “end class-action litigation in America as we know it,” according to a law professor who studies the subject. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Vanderbilt law professor Brian Fitzpatrick says the case has a low profile, but it could…

Nov 9, 2010 3:07 PM CST

In 3rd Music-Download Trial Replay, Minn. Woman Is Hit with $1.5M Verdict; $62,500 Per Song

As the Bill Murray character experienced in the movie Groundhog Day, those who can’t seem to get it right may have to relive the same day again and again until they do. For a Minnesota woman, that has been happening in real life in a music-downloading lawsuit. In the third…

Nov 4, 2010 4:59 PM CDT

Class Action Partner Sues Over Price of Delta Airline Ticket Sold to His Wife, Seeks Punitives

When a Delta Airlines representative sold a $3,000 coach ticket to Israel to Susan Izard and then allegedly admitted, later in the same conversation, that a business-class ticket could have been purchased for several hundred dollars less, she apparently didn’t know who she was dealing with. Izard is the wife…

Nov 3, 2010 5:41 PM CDT

Google Sues Feds, Alleges Anti-Competitive Bid Specs for E-Mail Contract Proposal

Google Inc. has turned the tables on the feds, alleging that the U.S. Department of the Interior has illegally restricted competition among potential bidders for an e-mail contract by requiring that the system had to be included in the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite The specifications are “unduly restrictive of…

Nov 1, 2010 9:04 PM CDT

Did Feds Use ‘Nuclear Bomb’ Grand Jury Subpoena to Silence Critic? Supreme Court May Decide

When a federal prosecutor tried to get a gag order against an outspoken critic of a case holding two Midwestern doctors criminally accountable for prescribing pain medication, a judge said no, citing the First Amendment. But then the prosecutor issued what Siobhan Reynolds describes as a “nuclear bomb” of a…

Nov 1, 2010 8:39 PM CDT

Debt Collector Faked Court Hearings to Trick Consumers into Paying Up, Says AG’s Suit

A Pennsylvania debt collector conducted fake court hearings in a mock courtroom in its offices and even sent uniformed officers who appeared to be sheriff’s deputies to serve civil subpoenas demanding that consumers appear for “hearings” and “depositions,” the state attorney general’s office contends in a lawsuit. Intimidated consumers allegedly…

Nov 1, 2010 6:59 PM CDT

Verizon Wireless to Pay Record $25M FCC Fine, Refund $50M in ‘Mystery’ Data Fees

Federal regulators have announced a $75 million pact with Verizon Wireless concerning some $50 million charged to about 15 million customers in “mystery” data fees of $1.99 per megabyte. In addition to refunding customers’ money, Verizon will pay $25 million to the federal government, a record for an FCC enforcement…

Oct 28, 2010 9:55 PM CDT

Foreclosure Defense Boot Camp Offers Advice and Scotch to Lawyers Who Pass Security Check

A bankruptcy lawyer’s remote 160-acre farm in North Carolina is, to some, ground zero in the battle against foreclosures. O. Max Gardner III, 65, gives four-day, $7,775 seminars to consumer attorneys there, teaching them how to defend against lender tactics and look for defective documentation of loans. Attendees must first…

Oct 27, 2010 6:04 PM CDT

Federal Judge Blocks Gov’t Attempt to Get Amazon Records for Tax Billing

A federal judge in Seattle has nixed an attempt by North Carolina taxing authorities to obtain customer records from Amazon in order to impose sales tax on their purchases. Although N.C. Revenue Department officials say they have no interest in checking to see what customers from the state are buying,…

Oct 26, 2010 9:50 PM CDT