| Volume 144 Number 9 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Every year millions of people have packages stolen right from their doorsteps. So what’s the best way to stop them? Click here for more.
Honda recalls 1.4 million vehicles due to three separate safety issues
Honda has announced that it’s recalling more than 1.4 million cars for a variety of reasons.
In filings with the National highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Honda said it’s recalling the vehicles due to three separate issues: a software flaw, drive shafts that can break, and window switches that can overheat and lead to fires.
The recall related to the software flaw includes 737,000 Accords from 2018 to 2020 and Insights from 2019 and 2020. Honda said a programming flaw in a control computer can cause the rear camera, turn signals, and windshield wipers to malfunction. Click here for more.
Your Money
Heading into 2021, housing market experts are predicting a year of high demand and rising home prices. After an initial drop in housing market activity last spring coinciding with stay-at-home orders and closed businesses, homebuying and selling rebounded quickly. Buyers are still eager to move, but the lesser supply of homes on the market in many parts of the U.S. is contributing to rising home prices. As a result, it remains a seller’s market that benefits homeowners who are choosing to sell now. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Court revives suit over “100% Parm Cheese” label. The Seventh Circuit has given new life to claims that grated cheese made by Kraft Heinz Co. misleads consumers by claiming to be "100% Grated Parmesan Cheese," saying the question of whether consumers would be misled is a factual dispute that can't be decided at a motion to dismiss While the district court had found that the ingredients list — which shows that the cheese contains other ingredients — cures the alleged deception of the front label, the panel judges found that this is asking too much of the average customer, who is unlikely to scrutinize the labeling the way attorneys or judges would. "Consumer-protection laws do not impose on average consumers an obligation to question the labels they see and to parse them as lawyers might for ambiguities, especially in the seconds usually spent picking a low-cost product," the panel wrote. According to the court, if there are multiple ways to interpret a label, and one of those ways is deceptive, then it's up to a factfinder to decide if consumers would be misled. Bell et al. v. Albertson Companies Inc., et al., case number 19-2741, and Bell et al. v. Publix Super Markets Inc. et al., case number 19-2581, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Click here for more.