| Volume 143 Number 31 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you own a small business or work for one, you’ve seen the headlines about financial relief that may be available to some companies through the Small Business Administration (SBA). But you’ve also heard about scammers who extract a grain of truth from the news and distort it in an effort to cheat small businesses. Now more than ever it’s critical for small businesses to go straight to the source for accurate information about what’s happening at the SBA. Click here for more.
DOT mandates that airlines must offer refunds
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage across the U.S., many industries are working to figure out how they can continue to do business. The airline industry, for example, has flipped back and forth between offering vouchers and refunds to travelers who have had their travel plans affected by the outbreak. But some of the ambiguity over how carriers should be responding was put to rest on Friday. In an Enforcement Notice, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said that airlines will need to provide refunds to consumers in some cases. Click here for more.
Your Money
Historically low tax rates make 2020 an ideal time to convert traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs. Now the coronavirus-induced market crash has increased the benefits of converting your traditional IRA to a Roth. Here is why now may be the ideal time to initiate a Roth IRA conversion: Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Business card with fax number may constitute consent to receive faxes. The Third Circuit ruled that distributing a business card with a fax number on it can be sufficient to establish “express invitation or permission” to receive faxes, and dismissed a proposed class action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act over allegedly unwanted faxes. A divided three-judge panel found that the use of “express consent” and “express invitation or permission” in the TCPA are interchangeable, and apply to unwanted phone calls and faxes equally. In a decision that waded into unsettled questions for the circuit about what constitutes a violation of the TCPA, Judge Joseph Greenaway, who wrote the majority opinion, further rejected arguments that the law requires faxes to include an opt-out clause even when the recipient is found to have “solicited” for the fax. “Its purpose is not to curb permitted, invited, and consented to—i.e., solicited—faxes,” Greenaway said. “As such, under the TCPA, solicited faxes do not need to contain opt-out notices.” Physicians Healthsource v. Cephalon Click here for more.