| Volume 92 Number 5 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
In Texas, your landlord must supply you with a working smoke detector. But from that point on, it is up to you to change the battery.
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United & Delta Get Strict on Reward Travel
Dealing with increasing costs, major airlines are looking for ways to generate additional revenue. Unfortunately for consumers, that means that some airlines are tightening the belt on frequent flyer reward travel.
This week, United and Delta made it much more difficult for consumers to cash in on their loyalty. Simply put, if you fly with United or Delta, chances are that your miles aren't worth as much today as they were yesterday.
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US Air & American to Form Largest Airline
Get ready for even less competition in the commercial air travel industry.
In August, the federal government filed a lawsuit against US Air and American Airlines to prevent a merger. According to the Justice Department, such a merger would raise significant antitrust concerns.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department cleared the way for the merger to move forward.
What concessions did the airlines have to make in order to get Justice Department approval?
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Your Money
How much do you need to retire?
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For the Lawyers
Availability of class arbitration is gateway issue to be decided by court.
The Sixth Circuit became the first to declare the availability of class actions is a gateway question that a court decides unless the parties clearly assign the question to the arbitrator.
The court had to decide whether class arbitration falls into the “gateway” or “subsidiary” camp. It acknowledged that the Supreme Court has not held that the availability of class arbitration is a gateway issue to be reserved for the courts, but has hinted strongly in recent years that it is, and the issue belongs in the courts.
Once the court gave itself permission to decide the issue, it quickly found the parties’ arbitration agreement did not allow a class action. “The principal reason to conclude that this arbitration clause does not authorize classwide arbitration is that the clause nowhere mentions it.”
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