| Volume 5 Number 2 |
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
You can sue in small claims court for as much as $5,000. But you cannot just "take less" to get into court. If you are owed $6,000, you can't sue in small claims court for only $5,000.
A Debit Card for Victims of Disaster
Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires -- it seems one part of the country just recovers from a natural disaster when another kind occurs somewhere else. To help victims of these disasters get back on their feet, insurance companies and partner banks have devised catastrophe claim cards, or "CAT" cards. These special debit cards are issued by banks in partnership with property and casualty insurers and loaded with insurance money to cover immediate, short-term needs. Click here for more.
IRS Sends Collection Agencies Calling for Back Taxes
Beginning this week, thousands of Americans who owe taxes to the federal government will start getting phone calls to pay up, from private collection agencies, not the IRS. Despite congressional opposition and criticism from a federal employee union and a taxpayer advisory panel, the IRS is giving three collection agencies information on 12,500 taxpayers who owe less than $25,000 and have not disputed the debt. The IRS has moved to reassure taxpayers about the plan, even outlining steps to guard against potential scam artists posing as private collectors. Click here for more.
Work, Poverty, and Single-Mother Families
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the welfare reform legislation signed in August 1996. Those touting the program's success often cite the sharp decline in the poverty rates of single-mother families over the course of the latter 1990s. While research has shown that changes in the rules governing welfare did contribute to an increase in welfare recipients (and potential recipients) in the workforce, other economic factors also played an important and complementary role. In fact, the strong increase in employment opportunities in the latter 1990s meant that the demand for labor expanded more than enough to meet the increase in labor supply precipitated by welfare reform. This raises the question: under welfare reform, what happens to the living standards of single mothers in a much less hospitable labor market? Click here for more.
Your Money
Will driving to a cheaper gas station save me money? Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
In determining the unconscionability of an arbitration clause, courts should look to facts at the time the clause was signed, not when enforced. Click here for more.