| Volume 142 Number 55 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you paid for technical support services from Global Access Technical Support (GATS), you’ll be getting a letter or an email from the Federal Trade Commission about a refund. You might have known the company as Global SConnect, Global sMind, Yubdata Tech, or Technolive. Click here for more.
The future of product recalls: AI and Amazon
Consumer goods can be recalled for any number of reasons, but the process is primarily used to protect people from potentially harmful products. Now, a group of researchers from Boston University School of Medicine have upped the ante. The team has created an artificial intelligence (AI) program named BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformations) that can identify items that have yet to be pulled from shelves but may require being recalled. The system is based partly on Amazon customer reviews. BERT fits into the consumer landscape as another tool to be used by regulators to keep tabs on items that could be potentially harmful. The system could be a boon to an agency like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is tasked with informing consumers about defective products. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you've ever carried a credit card, borrowed money or stashed some cash in a savings account, you know that interest rates affect how many dollars stay in your pocket. A complex system dictates interest rates at any given time. Banks base the interest rates they offer consumers on the rate set by the Federal Reserve. Here's more on how rates are determined. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Debt collector's fee counts as an authorized cost under debtor’s contract. The Seventh Circuit considered whether a contract provision saying the signor would "be billed for any amounts that are due and owing plus any costs (including reasonable attorney's fees) incurred by [Six Flags] in attempting to collect amounts due," included collection costs. The parties agree that NRA is allowed to collect this fee if it was "expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt.” The contract explicitly allows for "any costs." As the Supreme Court recently reiterated, the word "any" signifies breadth. See Smith v. Berryhill, 139 S. Ct. 1765 (2019). Dictionary definitions confirm that the phrase "any costs" is broad enough to include this fee. Circuit Judges therefore concluded that a percentage-based collection fee is a "cost" within the meaning of this language. Bernal v. NRA Grp., LLC, __ F.3d __ (7th Cir 23019) Click here for more.