| Volume 143 Number 26 |
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
Teleworking during the Coronavirus outbreak? While working from home can help slow the spread of the virus, it brings new challenges: juggling work while kids are home from school; learning new software and conferencing programs; and managing paper files at home. As you’re getting your work-at-home systems set up, here are some tips for protecting your devices and personal information. Click here for more.
Federal officials move U.S. Tax Day deadline to July 15
Taxpayers got an extra reprieve on Friday as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that Tax Day was officially moving from April 15 to July 15. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mnuchin had already moved the date when citizens had to pay taxes, but his latest move includes when filing is due as well. Click here for more.
Your Money
With social distancing becoming a new norm, it's difficult to safely buy food and other necessities amid the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the national chains below, plenty of local businesses are also rolling out innovative curbside and contactless pickup options. As many small businesses are struggling now, be sure to check out options in your neighborhood or city. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Suit against condominium association board director to collect attorneys’ fees is not for a consumer debt. The Seventh Circuit found that the former board director failed to state a cause of action under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. 1692, et seq., because the attorneys’ fees at issue and authorized under the association’s “Restated Declaration” agreement for violations of the board’s rules or obligations did not constitute a “debt” under the FDCPA’s limited, consumer-protection-focused definition. It was undisputed that the association’s state court action requested that the court impose a financial obligation on the former board director by requiring him to pay fees. However, the Court noted that to determine whether the demand qualifies as a “debt” under the FDCPA “'[t]he crucial question is the legal source of the obligation.’” The former board director argued that any obligation to pay the association’s counsel’s attorneys’ fees was a consumer debt because but for his condominium purchase he never would have served on the association board; but for his board service, he never would have become ensnared in the state court action; and but for the state court action, he never would have found himself on the receiving end of the association’s counsel’s legal demand to pay attorneys’ fees. Reviewing Congress’s limited definition of “debt” under the FDCPA to consumer debt, however, the Seventh Circuit determined that the attorneys’ fees at issue did not “aris[e] out of” a consumer transaction as Congress employed that requirement in defining “debt” (15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5)) and, therefore, fell outside the scope of the statute. Spiegel v. Kim, (7th Cir) Click here for more.