| Volume 143 Number 98 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Having trouble paying your student loan debt? You might get an offer that says you can reduce your monthly payment, or even reduce your overall debt. The offer might look like it comes from the government… Click here for more.
AMC Theatres says it could be out of business by the end of the year
How bad have things gotten for the movie industry? So bad that AMC Theatres, the planet’s biggest movie chain, says it could completely run out of money by the end of the year.
Early Tuesday, the company said that its cash on hand would be "largely depleted" by the end of 2020 or early 2021. It noted two reasons for that, including a "reduced movie slate for the fourth quarter" and "the absence of significant increases in attendance from current levels."
Despite the dire picture and the misfortune of other movie chains, AMC thinks it has two ways out of its money problem. If more customers started buying tickets, that would help. So would finding new ways to borrow money. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you're working from home, you may be expecting a call, text or email one of these days letting you know that it's time to come back. Back to the office, the job site or wherever your career takes you. After months – possibly working with a spouse and virtually schooled kids – you may be psychologically ready to go back to work, but is your wallet? You were, after all, saving quite a bit of money working from home. So if you haven't thought about it yet, you may want to think about how your financial picture is about to change. There are quite a few routine expenses that you may have forgotten about and may need to go back into your budget. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Debt collector's letter outlining the current balances on his account was not false, misleading or deceptive. Consumer claimed the letter threatened to start adding interest and fees to the debt once Client Services stopped its collection efforts. The Seventh Circuit found there was no such indication in the letter. More specifically, the panel said the letter's breakdown of the debt — which features zero balances for "interest" and "other charges" — did not imply interest and fees would accrue because the breakdown was not "forward-looking." Rather, the opinion said the breakdown was an accurate picture of the current balances for the debt. "[T]he itemized breakdown here, which makes no comment whatsoever about the future and does not make an explicit suggestion about future outcomes, does not violate the [Fair Debt Collection Practices Act]," the opinion read. Joseph Degroot v. Client Services Inc., ___ F.3d ___ (7th Cir 2020) Click here for more.