| Volume 143 Number 61 |
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
During these difficult economic times, scammers will do almost anything to try to get your money. Including, it turns out, making bogus claims about economic stimulus checks to lure customers to auto sales events. Click here for more.
Cruise lines suspend all cruises out of U.S. ports until September 15
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a cruise line trade organization, announced Friday that all member cruise ships departing from the U.S. will remain docked until at least September due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.
CLIA said it will voluntarily suspend all sailings from U.S. ports until September 15, which will give it time to make sure its health safety measures are sufficient when departures eventually resume. CLIA represents cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian Cruise Line.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had originally set an expiration of July 24 for its no-sail order. CLIA said it’s taking extra time out of an abundance of caution. That extra time will go toward helping to ensure that all measures “will be appropriate for the eventual resumption of cruise operations." Click here for more.
Your Money
Every once in a while, it happens – you wind up with a small windfall of cash in your bank account that isn't immediately earmarked for bills. For many people, that happened this year. As you know, a stimulus check – most of them being around $1,200, with possibly more if you have children – was sent from the federal government to help us through an economy devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, you may have burned through that stimulus check some time ago. However, if you're still waiting for it – or have some of it left in your bank account and are trying to figure out what to do with it – or you have cobbled together some extra money from other sources – here are some ideas on how you might want to use an extra $1,000. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Texas lottery contractor not entitled to state’s immunity. In two cases, a divided Texas Supreme Court held a government contractor can't escape two $500 million fraud lawsuits over allegedly misleading lottery scratch-off games. The court declined to extend the immunity enjoyed by the Texas Lottery Commission to the private company it partnered with. The panel trimmed the suit, however, tossing Nettles' claims of conspiracy and aiding and abetting an alleged fraud by the commission. However, it determined the Texas Lottery Commission didn't have sufficient control over the actions that led to the fraud claims — Gtech's choices in writing the game instructions — for immunity to apply and end the litigation. The majority said "close supervision and final approval" over a contractor's work is not the same as "the government specifying the manner in which a task is to be performed." And in this case, the commission did not tell Gtech how to write the instructions, the panel held. Dawn Nettles v. Gtech Corp. et al., case number 17-1010, and Gtech Corp. v. James Steele et al., case number 18-0159, in the Texas Supreme Court Click here for more.