| Volume 142 Number 33 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
The market is swimming in products and services for fitness and health, making the competition for your business more fierce than ever. Learn how to decode ads for products that promise to cure everything from baldness and cancer to diabetes and dementia, and for services that say they will shape you up, restore your youthful glow, and turn those abs into a well-defined six pack. Click here for more.
Amazon launches free one-day shipping for Prime members
Amazon has officially extended its free one-day shipping offer to Prime members “coast to coast.” The company says more than ten million products are eligible for next-day delivery, and no minimum purchase is required. The e-commerce giant first announced its goal of making one-day shipping the default plan for Prime customers in April. At the time, it didn’t provide a time frame for the launch of the plan. It did say, however, that it planned to invest $800 million to shorten the delivery window. Not long after Amazon announced its next-day shipping plan, the head of a major labor union issued a statement expressing concern that speeding up shipping may not be feasible for fulfillment center workers who already process several hundred orders per hour during long shifts. Click here for more.
Your Money
Historically, most homeowners have chosen to work with a real estate agent to get their home listed and sold – but in the digital era, there are countless resources available to those who wish to fly solo. The "for sale by owner" approach, or FSBO, has never been more accessible. The primary benefits of selling a home without an agent are probably quite clear. You don’t have to pay commissions, which means you keep all of the profit. You have more control over how to sell the place. You can do things on your own terms and on your own time. However, that doesn’t mean FSBO is the best option for everyone. Some people are more qualified to handle it than others. Before you decide to go the FSBO route, there are three key questions to ask yourself: Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
FDCPA attorney’s fees award slashed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district courts finding that a prevailing consumer’s request for $187,410 in attorney’s fees was unreasonable in a FDCPA action. The fees were reduced to $10,875. The case involved two FDCPA lawsuits. In the first suit, the consumer and a debt collector settled the consumer’s FDCPA related claims for $1,001 plus attorney’s fees of $4,500. The collector continued to attempt to collect, which resulted in a second suit. In the second suit, the jury only awarded the consumer $1,000 in FDCPA statutory damages, after which the attorney sought to recover $187,410 in attorney’s fees. The district court reduced his request to $10,875, The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding the time associated with the $187,410 in attorneys’ fees did not reflect the sort of reasonable attorney work that is often inevitable as part of traveling a diligent litigation course. To the contrary, the court found the vast majority of the fees sought were for time spent pursuing an unsuccessful and ill-advised effort to win a much bigger payoff than was even remotely possible in the circumstances giving rise to his claims. Click here for more.