| Volume 34 Number 5 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you do not have a will, the law writes one for you. For example, if you are married and have children from another marriage, your children and their step-mother may share your property after your death. The best way to make sure your property goes to whom you want after your death is to have a will. A will can also avoid time and expense when it comes to probate. Click here for more.
ID Theft Hits Record 10 Million Consumers
Identity theft is growing. A staggering 10 million American victims lost $48 billion in 2008 as a result of identity theft. Common causes of identity theft include stolen wallets, checkbooks, and credit card. Online fraud, including fraud through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, makes up over 10% of the total identity theft. Help reduce the risk for fraud by (1) not sharing personal data with unknown persons; (2) keeping sensitive documents secure; (3) destroying unnecessary data; (4) choosing hard-to-guess passwords and PINs and (5) notifying financial services providers and the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit bureaus if fraud is suspected. Find out what's new in identity theft. Click here for more.
Companies Plan Salary Freeze
While many consumers are being let-go from their jobs, some will be lucky enough to maintain employment throughout the recession. Unfortunately, 25% of companies are planning salary freezes. This means that employees of those companies will not see any increase in income for 2009. In fact, some companies are going the extra step and reducing overall salary for employees. Could your employer be next? Click here for more.
New Bank Rescue Plan
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled a four-point plan that aims to restart the flow of credit to businesses and consumers. The key points include: (1) Testing the health of big banks to weather an even deeper economic downturn; (2) Making credit more available to consumers and businesses; (3) Creating a private-public partnership to take toxic assets off banks' balance sheets and; (4) Addressing the housing crisis. Will the new plan work better than the first? Click here for more.
Your Money
What are the cost of living between cities? Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Car dealer did not misrepresent the nature of the dealer's inventory tax. A Texas appellate court has held that as a matter of law, an auto dealer made no misrepresentation regarding the dealer's inventory tax, and the trial court did not err by granting summary judgment for the dealer. Click here for more.