by

Justice prevails!

You may recall that I wrote recently about Judge Roy L. Pearson – the guy who was suing a dry cleaner’s for losing his pants for a couple days and was asking for 67 million dollars. Well, he lost. “Judge Bartnoff has spoken loudly in suggesting that, while consumers should be protected, abusive lawsuits like this will not be tolerated,” said the lawyer for the owners of the dry cleaners.

Will this repair all the damage done by Mr. Pearson in terms of the public’s confidence in our legal system? I doubt it. But it definitely makes me feel better, knowing that I can explain to people that the system, in the end, worked.

by

In the course of doing some research this week, I discovered that Indiana is one of only three states that does not require automobile dealer’s to post a bond of some kind. See, look for yourself by clicking here.

Being in the minority isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes Indiana is progressive. But I don’t think that’s what is going on here.

A bond, from my perspective, is a guarantee that my client who wins a lawsuit against the dealership will be able to collect at least some, if not all, of the judgment. Indiana consumers, unfortunately, have been left unprotected in this area. Unfortunately, I’m not sure why. Has it simply slipped through the cracks? Has the dealers’ lobby been successful in stopping the legislation? I don’t know.

Continue reading

by

I have been really, really busy lately… and it’s been a while since I wrote a blog entry. I have a couple topics that I hope to write on soon, but today I thought I’d put my 13 year-old son to work and perhaps obtain an amusing blog entry at the same time. His assignment? Answer the question: What does a consumer lawyer do?

Hello, I really have no clue what a consumer lawyer is even though I come to my dad’s office sometimes and try to help. He told me to write down what a consumer lawyer was on a pad of paper and wouldn’t give me any clues. I tried to get him to tell me what things were but he wouldn’t say anything so I just went for it not knowing very much at all. Here it is.

A consumer lawyer is a lawyer that helps people if they were scammed buying or selling something. My dad helps people get the money that was cheated from them earlier. He helps to get scamming people in trouble like they should be. He sort of helps people with financial stuff, sometimes to get money for them that they should have. A consumer lawyer can sometimes be a big financial aid if you were scammed big money or you could save big money on something you didn’t know you could. I pretty much don’t know what a consumer lawyer is but I think I’m on the right track, maybe.

Continue reading

by

Q: I purchased a new car six months ago. The gas mileage is horrible. I am probably getting 75% of what I’m supposed to get. I’ve taken it in to the dealer and reported this problem many times, and they just tell me they can’t find anything wrong. Do I have a lemon?

A: With gas prices what they are today, everyone is paying more attention to their gas mileage. If you’re not getting the mileage you expected, there’s a reason: no one else is either. That’s because the mileage figures posted on the window of a new car are ESTIMATES prepared by the EPA. They are usually quite inflated because they are based on a formula from 20 years ago that reflects perfect driving conditions and doesn’t take into account raised speed limits, traffic conditions, weather, individual driving styles and the like.

Thankfully, the EPA is revising its formula for gas mileage estimates on its 2008 models. These figures should be more realistic and should reflect more accurately real life mileage figures for all 2008 new vehicles.

Continue reading

by

Roy L. Pearson, Jr., an administrative hearings judge in the District of Columbia, took several suits to Custom Cleaners in Washington, D.C. for alteration. One of the pairs of pants was missing when he returned to pick them up two days later. So Pearson asked the cleaners to pay for the suit, around $1,000. A week later, though, the cleaners found the pants and refused to pay. Pearson decided to sue.

So of course Pearson sued for everything to which he felt entitled, which turned out to be $65,000,000. Yep, sixty five million dollars.

Pearson is apparently claiming that the cleaner’s signs stating “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service” are fraudulent. The bulk of the sixty five million is for 43,200 separate violations of D.C.’s consumer protection law, the Consumer Protection and Procedures Act, which is D.C.’s equivalent of the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, at $1,500 a pop. Alrighty then. Part of the remainder is money for Pearson to rent a car every weekend for the next ten years so that Pearson can take his clothes to another dry cleaner.

Continue reading

by

So far in this series, we have determined that the Indiana Motor Vehicle Protection Act, Indiana’s lemon law, is the least consumer friendly of our neighboring states’ lemon laws with regard to: the deduction the manufacturer receives for the mileage on a vehicle in a buyback situation (Part 1) and the kind of vehicles to which the law applies (Part 2). This time, let’s take a look at what’s called the “term of protection,” which is the period of time the law applies following a new car purchase.

Indiana’s lemon law is straightforward. Indiana Code 24-5-13-7 states that the term of protection begins on the date the vehicle is delivered to the buyer, and expires eighteen months from that date or when the car has been driven 18,000 following delivery, whichever comes first. Fine, you say, but what has to happen within the term of protection? Does my lemon lawsuit have to be filed within that time? No, it does not.

Indiana Code 24-5-13-8 makes it (mostly) clear that if the buyer first reports the particular repair issue within the term of protection, then the vehicle can subsequently be deemed a lemon based on that particular repair issue even though the vehicle actually becomes a lemon (four unsuccessful repair attempts or 30 or more days out of service) outside the term of protection. So it’s only critical that the repair issue manifest itself within the term of protection (and get reported to the dealer). Then, the only other limitation is that the lemon lawsuit be filed within two years of the first repair attempt.

Continue reading

by

Haven’t you ever wished the bank would make a mistake and through some glitch deposit about a hundred thousand dollars in your account? And then never find out? Tell me you’ve never thought about that! Anyway, that happened to George Costanza, oops, I mean George J. Costa of La Vista, Nebraska. More than $106,000 was deposited in his account between August 2006 and February 2007 after a bank employee mixed up account numbers. What did Mr. Costa do? He spent most of it. What’s happening to Mr. Costa now? He’s being charged with felony theft.

Does Mr. Costa owe the bank the money? Almost certainly. Will he be convicted of theft? That’s a much tougher call, but I definitely wouldn’t like to be in Mr. Costa’s position. Mr. Costa’s lawyer said: “If somebody sticks money in your pocket and you spend it, you can’t be convicted of theft.” I’m not sure that’s what happened here, but good luck. At least there’s an argument to be made.

Mr. Costa probably would have a better chance of escaping a conviction if he hadn’t spent the money on lottery tickets. Ok, I’m kidding on that one!!!!!

by

Indiana car owners shouldn’t be surprised, but Indiana’s “In God We Trust” license plate has been challenged in court. Actually, the fact that there is no extra charge for it is being challenged. Sadly, I’m not surprised. I just wrote about how much I liked the new license plate a few days ago. (Click here to see that blog entry.)

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Plaintiff Mark E. Studler by the Indiana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. We’ll see what happens, but I don’t have a good feeling about the outcome. Tyranny of the minority is how I see it.

by

I received a mailer recently from Equifax. The mailer was selling Equifax’s credit monitoring tool called Credit Watch Gold. It had a couple of “Identifact(s)” listed which contained a few statements that made me go “Hmmmm?”:

* identity theft is now surpassing drug trafficking as the nations’s #1 crime * there are over 10 million victims of identity theft annually * the average victim of identity theft spends 28 hours and $5,686 to resolve the case

The mailer cites the U.S. Department of Justice Statistics and the Federal Trade Commission for this information.

Continue reading

by

If you live in Indiana, or anywhere along the spring break travel route to Florida, you’ve probably seen quite a few cars with the new Indiana “In God We Trust” license plate. Actually, I’ve been amazed at how many I’ve seen. It’s almost like it’s Indiana’s new license plate.

licplate.jpgI knew that couldn’t be, considering the message (a message I wholeheartedly agree with, by the way), but figured it must be a specialty plate. I assumed all specialty plates cost extra money, making it even more amazing how many Indiana drivers were choosing this plate. When I went to the license branch to renew my license plates this week, I found out that it is a specialty plate of sorts, but it’s a specialty plate that doesn’t cost extra. Apparently, it’s the only “free”** specialty plate.

Stupendous. I signed up for the program.

Continue reading