| Volume 116 Number 5 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Have you heard that pasting a legal notice on your Facebook wall will protect your privacy and copyright rights? In fact that is not true. You can check out snopes.com to debunk this and other modern urban legends. Click here for more.
Company Tracks Safety of Ride Sharing Services
A company called Zendrive is collecting data on the driving habits of rideshare drivers using sensors on their smartphones. The company gives the data to companies that contract drivers to services like Uber and Lyft. Analysis of the data shows that the cities with the safest rideshare drivers were Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Portland, Oregon, and San Diego. The least safe were Atlanta, Fort Worth, Houston, Miami and Dallas. Click here for more.
Your Money
Did you know that credit cards provide you with more protections than cash or debit cards if you have a problem with a purchase? Credit cards allow you to dispute a charge, and if they find in your favor they can reverse the charges. Many people are concerned about using credit cards for other reasons, and this link discusses those reasons, and sets out strategies to take care of those concerns. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Applying Minnesota payday lending law to a Delaware company that made loans over the Internet is not unconstitutional. The lender argued that the application of Minnesota law to its loans violated the extraterritoriality principle of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which prohibits a state from regulating commerce that occurs “wholly outside the . . . [s]tate.” The Minnesota Supreme Court noted that the commerce regulated by Minnesota’s payday-lending law in this case, which involved a Delaware company lending money to residents of Minnesota and making deposits and withdrawals through Minnesota banks, was not wholly extraterritorial. “In this case, the “economic activity” regulated by Minnesota’s payday-lending law involved more than just Integrity’s signature; the law governed the entire transaction between Integrity and borrowers. The law regulated the payment of funds to and from Minnesota borrowers, which for most of these loan transactions included electronic transfers into and out of Minnesota banks, activities that certainly qualify as commerce.” State v. Integrity Advance, LLC. Click here for more.