| Volume 104 Number 1 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
You can sue in Texas Justice Court for up to $10,000 and you do not need an attorney to assist you.
Next time you have a dispute, consider the real people's court. A small claims case in Justice Court is quick and informal. In many cases, once the other person knows you know your legal rights and will assert them, they quickly try to settle the dispute.
For more general information about the law, check out my website.
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Avoiding a Bank Account Could Be Costly
In 2013, 25 million Americans had no bank at all. An additional 68 million Americans were "underbanked." They, like those with no bank at all, rely heavily on alternative methods of payment. Instead of using a traditional bank account or credit card, many Americans rely on reloadable prepaid cards to pay bills and other expenses. For them, it offers an alternative without fear of overdraft.
Making the decision to avoid using a traditional bank account or credit cards could be a costly one.
It’s difficult to build a credit score if you don’t have a bank account and credit card. Credit scores now affect one’s ability to rent an apartment or get a job. Saving informally is riskier than saving in a bank.
Why is it important to have a bank account?
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FTC Sues AT&T for Throttling Consumer Data
Back in 2011, AT&T started throttling data speeds for unlimited customers. Once customers hit about 2 gigabytes of data per month, AT&T would slow their speeds by as much as 90%. Since 2011, AT&T has dramatically slowed data speeds for 3.5 million customers more than 25 million times.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, AT&T wasn't honoring its contractual obligations when it throttled customer data speeds. As FTC Chair Edith Ramirez puts it, "The issue here is simple: 'unlimited' means unlimited."
After throttling their data, it was nearly impossible for AT&T customers to browse the web, use GPS navigation, or stream video.
AT&T denies any liability, reasoning that because it told unlimited data customers ahead of time that it would slow their data speeds to a crawl, their claims were baseless.
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GM Offers $25 Gift Card to Fix Recalls
Early in the recall process, General Motors ran out of parts to fix defective ignition switches. Until the company received more needed materials, it asked consumers to take other things off their key chains to reduce the strain on the ignition. Unfortunately, the company believes this may have left some customers complacent, or believing it wasn't necessary to fix the problem.
The ignition switch recall, however, is a very big deal. Although the recall has already been linked to at least 29 deaths, customers aren't rushing in to get the repairs done. In fact, only about half of all vehicles under recall have been fixed.
To encourage more customers to get necessary repairs completed, General Motors is offering consumers a $25 gift card if they have recall repairs completed by December 1.
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Your Money
Can you retire early?
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For the Lawyers
Guarantor is not an applicant under Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
The Eighth Circuit held that wives who executed guaranties of loans to a limited liability corporation company in which their husbands had an interest were not protected by the ECOA. In so holding, the court refused to follow a federal reserve Board interpretation that held the term “applicant” included a guarantor.
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