| Volume 133 Number 4 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Are you tired of receiving offers for new credit cards? You can opt out for five years by going to www.optoutprescreen.com
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Consumer Reports warns of ineffective carbon monoxide detectors
Consumer Reports magazine is warning that three similar-looking off-brand carbon monoxide alarms failed critical performance tests and have been rated Don’t Buy: Safety Risk. All three were purchased from online retailers: NetBoat WB_H3110061 LCD Portable Security Gas CO Carbon Poisoning Monitor (Amazon), Foho YJ-806 LCD Portable Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Monitor Alarm (Amazon), and GoChange 882 LCD Portable Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Monitor Alarm (eBay).
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Your Money
Fed raises interest rates for 2nd time in 3 months and leaves forecast for future hikes unchanged. Citing increasing inflation, today the Fed raised its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 0.75% to 1% and stuck to its forecast of two more such increases this year and three in 2018. The move is expected to filter through the economy, pushing up rates slightly for everything from mortgages and car loans to credit card debt and bank savings accounts. "The simple message is -- the economy is doing well." Fed Chair Janet Yellen said at a news conference in explaining the rate increase. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Arbitration provision in contract is not enforceable when buyer shows he did not agree to that provision. Buyer signed or initialed the bill of sale in two places –– he initialed a box indicating that the boat was being sold "as is," and he signed on a line at the bottom of the document regarding his receipt of the boat and the acknowledgment of the boat's condition. He did not, however, initial the box under the arbitration provision, Buyer argued that, because he did not initial the box directly below the arbitration provision, he did not agree to that provision. The Alabama Supreme Court agreed and held that that the arbitration provision that was not initialed had not become part of the contract between the parties. Bevel v. Marine Group, LLC, (Ala. 2017). Click here for more.