| Volume 142 Number 29 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
June 1 is the official start of hurricane season, and a great time to make a plan to deal with weather emergencies. Extreme weather events, like hurricanes and other natural disasters, can occur with little warning, and the effects come in many forms. Hurricanes may include heavy rainfall, high winds, storm surge, inland flooding, tornadoes, and rip currents. Are you ready to leave your home at a moment’s notice? Click here for more.
FedEx to deliver seven days a week starting in January
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Six days just isn’t enough time to deliver everything consumers are buying online. FedEx has announced that it will make deliveries seven days a week in most of the U.S., starting in January. The company also said it has begun to integrate FedEx SmartPost package volume into FedEx Ground standard operations and increase large package capabilities. To meet the demand for shipping products, FedEx is also trying to become more efficient in last-mile deliveries, the hardest and most expensive part of the system. A program is in place to gradually transition FedEx SmartPost packages from U.S. Postal Service delivery to FedEx ground. The company plans to take back about 2 million parcels that are currently delivered by mail carriers, something likely to put a dent in U.S. Postal Service revenue.
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Your Money
There are 5 million cases of elder fraud in the United States annually, resulting in $27.4 billion in losses. Most victims don't report it, due to embarrassment. As awareness of this issue grows, so does the brazenness of those committing the frauds. Seniors seem to be most susceptible to fraud and abuse; they come from a generation that trusted. Baby boomers are more skeptical. But I think as you age, you want to believe in the goodness of people, and that makes you more vulnerable. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Third-Party Counterclaim Defendants Cannot Remove Class-Action Counterclaims to Federal Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that a party who is first brought into a case as a defendant to a counterclaim (e.g., when an individual sued by a debt collector files a counterclaim against not only the debt collector but also the merchant to whom the debt was originally owed) cannot remove the case to federal court—even where the original claim has evaporated, leaving only a multistate class action being prosecuted in state court. The Court held that Home Depot could not remove the claims against it to federal court, either under the general removal statute or the provisions of CAFA that modified the removal statute in certain respects. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. v. Jackson Click here for more.