| Volume 125 Number 12 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
The “statute of limitations” for a debt generally is four years after default. If you are sued after that, you can have the suit dismissed. Click here for more.
Federal Government Releases Report on Tesla's Autopilot Crash
On Tuesday, the federal government released initial findings from an investigation into the fatal Tesla crash involving autopilot in May. The National Transportation Safety Board report found that the driver was driving 74 mph in a 65 mph zone prior to hitting a tractor-trailer. This is one of two federal investigations into the Tesla autopilot system following the high-profile crash. It's a reminder of the controversy surrounding Tesla's (TSLA) autopilot system, which takes over some driving responsibilities from drivers. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you buy a health insurance plan, it generally covers a broad range of services, and pays for a portion of your medical bills. With a medical discount plan, you generally pay a monthly fee to get discounts on specific services or products from a list of participating providers. Medical discount plans don’t pay your health care costs. Many states require medical discount programs to be licensed or registered. Your state insurance commissioner’s office can tell you whether a medical discount program — or a health insurance plan — is licensed in your state, and may be able to alert you to a scam. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Procedural violation of FDCPA constitutes a concrete injury. In an unpublished opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a consumer alleging that she did not receive disclosures required by the federal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) sufficiently alleged that she suffered a concrete injury, and thus satisfied the standing doctrine’s injury-in-fact requirement under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. The court discussed the holding in Spokeo, in which the Supreme Court explained that in order to “establish injury in fact, a plaintiff must show that he or she suffered an invasion of a legally protected interest that is concrete and particularized and actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.” While an injury must be “concrete,” which means “real” and not “abstract,” the Supreme Court in Spokeo held that “an injury need not be tangible to be concrete and reiterated that Congress may elevate to the status of legally cognizable injuries concrete, de facto injuries that were previously inadequate in law.” Accordingly, “the violation of a procedural right granted by statute can be sufficient in some circumstances to constitute injury in fact.” Church v. Accretive. Click here for more.