Consumer Law

Default Judgments Can Allow Creditors to Collect Debt That Was Never Owed

When a deluge of phone calls and letters began insisting that Nancy Taylor owed nearly $2,000 on a Sears account, the San Jose, Calif., resident fought to protect her excellent credit rating, responding to each letter explaining that she had had no such account. But even though Sears confirmed that…

Apr 23, 2010 5:53 PM CDT

Security Glitch Results in Posting of Blippy User Credit Card Numbers Online

Updated: A quirky social website that allows users to share information about when and where they make purchases is getting some unwanted attention after it was revealed Friday that user credit card numbers are appearing online. VentureBeat first noticed the glitch and reported that credit card numbers appeared in some…

Apr 23, 2010 5:34 PM CDT

Lawyer’s $500K Private Study Leads to Ground Beef Recall

Recalls of ground beef because of potential E. coli contamination ordinarily result from testing by the government, suppliers or retailers. But when the WinCo supermarket chain announced a recall last week, it was a result of a private testing program run by a Washington state lawyer, reports the Seattle Times.…

Apr 23, 2010 4:48 PM CDT

Judge Linked to ‘Lawmiss’ Web Comments Removed from Case

Updated: An Ohio judge who has refused to step down from a serial murder case after a local newspaper reported that she may have posted anonymous Internet comments about the defendant and his lawyer told the state’s top court that she did nothing wrong and should not be forced to…

Apr 22, 2010 9:32 PM CDT

Small Foreclosure Firm’s Big Bucks: Back Office Grossed $260M in 2009

The Law Offices of David J. Stern has only about 15 attorneys, according to legal directories. However, it’s the biggest filer of mortgage foreclosure suits in Florida, reports the Tampa Tribune. Aided by a back office that dwarfs the law firm with its staff of nearly 1,000, the Miami area…

Apr 20, 2010 4:59 PM CDT

Judge Dismisses Mortgage Foreclosure Over ‘Fraudulently Backdated’ Doc

A Florida judge has dismissed a mortgage foreclosure case filed by a national bank, finding not only that the bank couldn’t prove it owned the mortgage at the time that it filed the complaint but “fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead” a purported 2007 “assignment of mortgage,”…

Apr 19, 2010 6:23 PM CDT

Preliminary Plaintiffs Lawyer Team Is Tapped in Consolidated Toyota Case

After news late last week that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation had decided to consolidate nearly 200 lawsuits against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. before a single federal judge in California, that judge has now tapped a preliminary team of plaintiffs lawyers to lead the complex case. U.S.…

Apr 16, 2010 9:24 PM CDT

Nomination for New US Cyberwar Chief to Explore Internet Issues

A confirmation hearing that begins tomorrow for the new United States Cyber Command post is expected to detail what the nominee himself a “mismatch between our technical capabilities to conduct operations and the governing laws and policies.” Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander made that assessment in written material he provided in…

Apr 14, 2010 9:23 PM CDT

Lawyer Plans to Sue Town Over Citizen E-Mail Addresses Given to Others

A Florida lawyer who is a resident and volunteer in Miami Lakes plans to sue the municipality over its policy of treating citizen e-mail addresses as public records. Ceasar Mestri announced his plan to seek a declaratory judgment from a state court on the issue at yesterday’s town council meeting,…

Apr 14, 2010 8:35 PM CDT

Wells Fargo Settles With NAACP, But 2 Cities File New Fair Lending Suits

Wells Fargo has just settled a fair housing lawsuit brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But the bank’s court battle over its alleged discriminatory lending practices isn’t over yet. Two cities filed amended federal fair housing complaints against Wells Fargo this week, in which they…

Apr 8, 2010 11:22 PM CDT

No Food Stamps for Service Dog, But His Disabled Owner May Now Have a Lawyer

A service dog doesn’t qualify for food stamps, a Pennsylvania court has ruled, because he isn’t human. But the animal’s disabled owner, James Douris, may not have to argue the legal issue on his own much longer. Although he lost a pro se Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court case arguing that the…

Apr 7, 2010 7:24 PM CDT

Effort to Fine Toyota $16.4M Could Speed Up Plaintiffs’ Discovery in Acceleration Cases

A record fine of $16.4 million that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking to impose on Toyota Motor Corp. will probably help the plaintiffs in hundreds of lawsuits filed against the company over alleged sudden acceleration issues and other vehicle concerns, even though the fine isn’t expected to…

Apr 6, 2010 5:53 PM CDT

US Seeks to Impose Record $16.4M Auto Safety Fine on Toyota

Adding to the legal woes of the embattled Toyota Motor Corp. is facing over reported sudden-acceleration problems in its vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced that it is seeking to impose a record-breaking auto safety fine of $16.375 million on the company. Federal law requires possible safety defects…

Apr 5, 2010 11:09 PM CDT

2nd Cir. OKs eBay Use of Tiffany’s Trademark, But Revives False Advertising Claim

The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with eBay today in a trademark infringement and dilution case brought by Tiffany & Co., finding that a lower court had correctly permitted eBay to list for sale on its website used items from the renowned retailer. However, its…

Apr 1, 2010 11:28 PM CDT

Unsettling Advocate

His center battles awards that benefit lawyers but not clients

Apr 1, 2010 6:40 AM CDT