| Volume 126 Number 3 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Prepaid debit cards are a good way to avoid the interest and fees associated with credit cards, right? Wrong! Many prepaid cards include fees to activate them up, review your account, use an ATM or reload the card. Be sure to shop around and read the terms before signing up for any prepaid card. Click here for more.
Food Labels Go Digital
Last week President Barack Obama signed into law a requirement that food companies flag genetically modified ingredients with plain writing, an icon developed by regulators, or digitally readable symbols known as a QR code. Healthy-food advocates and food manufacturers are debating over whether consumers will actually scan the QR codes with their phones and actually read the labels. Critics say that the QR code is not explicit. Click here for more.
Your Money
Tax free weekend is approaching and before you buy do your research. You can use apps like ShopSavvy for instant in-store price comparison, and use it to request price matches. The Invisible Hand browser extension provides pop-up notifications if something you see online is sold at another site for less. Use Trackif.com to track price drops. The site sends you notifications on products you've purchased so that you know when to request a price adjustment Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Arbitration clause does not apply to parties on the same side. A Texas court of appeals held that an arbitration agreement between two individuals and a financial Adviser does not apply to a dispute between the two individuals. The court noted that under the purchase agreement, the words “we,” “us,” and “our” referred to UCFA, and “you” and “your” referred to David and William individually and collectively and to their firm, Swearingen Financial Group. The agreement provided that if a dispute arose related to the agreement, “you and UCFA agree” to arbitrate such claim “upon notice by either party to the other.” It also provided that, in the event of such arbitration, “[y]ou and we will, by joint agreement, select a single arbitrator.” The Court held that, although the agreement did not specifically state it only applied to disputes between UCFA on the one hand and David and William on the other, that is the only reasonable interpretation of the agreement. Swearingen v. Swearingen (Tex. App.—Dallas, 2016). Click here for more.