| Volume 143 Number 70 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Scammers latest ploy is posing as representatives from utility companies to dupe people out of their cash and personal information by convincing them their utilities will be shut off if they don’t pay.
If you get a call from someone claiming to be your utility company, here are some things you can do: Click here for more.
iPhone owners can now file ‘batterygate’ lawsuit claims
Some iPhone owners whose older devices were slowed down by Apple are starting to receive notifications regarding their legal rights and options under a class action lawsuit.
Earlier this year, Apple agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing it of “secretly throttling” older iPhones. Now, each eligible iPhone owner who submits a claim can receive approximately $25 per device that experienced “diminished performance.”
Eligible consumers must currently or have previously owned: Click here for more.
Your Money
If you have a 30-year mortgage, you may feel as though you'll always be paying off your house. But you can slash the time it takes to pay off your mortgage using a number of strategies, many of which don't require spending a lot of extra money. The fastest ways to pay off your mortgage may include a combination of the following tactics: Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Slip-and-fall plaintiff is not a consumer under the DTPA. A U.S. District court has joined most other courts in finding that a slip-and-fall plaintiff is not a DTPA consumer. To have standing under the DTPA, the plaintiff must be a "consumer," as that term is defined by the DTPA. A "[c]onsumer," according to the DTPA, is "an individual . . . who seeks or acquires by purchase or lease, any goods or services." A customer who goes into a Starbucks to buy a Starbucks product and slips on the floor is not a "consumer" for purposes of bringing a DTPA claim based on the slip and fall because his injuries aren't sufficiently related to the goods or services he was purchasing—i.e., the coffee or other product he intended to buy. Geri v. Starbucks Corp., (W.D. Tex. 2020). Click here for more.