| Volume 142 Number 52 |
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Forward this news alert to your family and friends
Helpful Links
Texas Consumer Complaint Center
Credit Reports and Identity Theft
Your Guide to Small Claims Court
Contact Us
1-713-743-2168
The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you needed yet another nudge to start keeping an eye on your credit report to protect against identity theft, Capital One has delivered it with its announcement that a data breach has exposed the personal information of 106 million of its credit card customers and credit card applicants in the United States and Canada. Click here for more.
FTC warns Equifax customers not to file settlement claims on fake websites
Following news that Equifax will begin providing monetary relief to those affected by its massive breach, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers not to be duped by phony Equifax settlement claims websites. Consumers are advised to “beware of fake websites claiming to be the Equifax settlement claims website” and instead apply for claims through the link provided on the FTC’s official website. The website also has information about the $125 payout Equifax has promised consumers who were affected by the data breach.
Click here for more.
Your Money
Many states that charge sales tax on purchases offer occasional tax-free days throughout the year in which sales tax is suspended on a particular type of good for a few days, typically over a weekend. Retailers take advantage of this and often offer sales on those tax-free weekends to further entice customers to open their wallets. August is one of the busiest months for tax-free days as many states align those holidays with the back-to-school shopping period, taking some of the expense of returning to school off the shoulders of parents. However, many of those holidays are beneficial to other customers as well. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
California Supreme Court rejects strict class-certification "ascertainability" requirement. The California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision rejecting a strict class-certification "ascertainability" requirement sometimes associated with decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. This paragraph sums up the issue and the court's conclusion: This case is a putative class action brought on behalf of retail purchasers of an inflatable outdoor pool sold in packaging that allegedly misled buyers about the pool’s size. We must decide whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied the representative plaintiff’s motion for class certification on the basis that he had not supplied evidence showing how class members might be individually identified when the time came to do so. The Court of Appeal upheld this ruling. It reasoned that this evidence was necessary to ensure that proper notice would be given to the class, and that without it, the trial court could appropriately conclude that plaintiff had not satisfied the ascertainability requirement for class certification. We conclude that the trial court erred in demanding that plaintiff offer such evidence to satisfy the ascertain ability requirement. It is important to note that this decision interprets California's class action rule, not federal Rule 23 Noel v. Thrifty Payless Inc. Click here for more.