Consumer Protection Laws and Information
The American Bar Association’s accreditation committee found the Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law is “significantly out of compliance” with certain accreditation standards. Specifically the committee found the law school was admitting candidates who do not appear to be capable of completing law school and passing a bar exam. The ABA’s Compliance Guidelines The American Bar Association publishes Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools where it gives guidance for admissions standards. Standard 501(a) states, “A law school shall adopt, publish, and adhere to sound admission policies and practices consistent with the Standards, its mission, and…Read More
Do you have minor children? Do you know if they have debt? They should not have debt. Unfortunately, our nation has seen a rise in identity theft of children. According to Kelli B. Grant’s recent article on CNBC, more than a million children were victims of identity theft last year. The scary and sad part is that most of the victims were age 7 or under, and most of the victims personally knew the perpetrator. It has become very apparent this is not an adult problem. How Does Child Identity Theft Occur? The identity theft can occur in several different ways: it…Read More
If you have been to a hospital for any reason recently, you may have been asked the question, “do you have a living will” by a hospital representative. Many times I have answered no without really understanding the importance of a living will. Currently, in our family, we are going through a very stressful medical roller coaster with a family member. About one month ago, this family member was rushed to the hospital by ambulance for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, due to her age, she had difficulty recovering from the surgery and had to be placed on a ventilator, eventually having…Read More
The hits just keep on coming for Wells Fargo. As if the $185 million settlement/penalty the bank has already paid to resolve the fake accounts issue wasn’t bad enough, Wells Fargo could now face up to $1 billion in penalties for auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses according to a new CNBC article and Reuters report. To recap the series of missteps made by the bank over the last several years, including other penalties and settlements paid, check out some of the other articles written below by my colleagues: Harming Consumers Again—Overcharging for Auto Insurance Predatory Lending Practices Against the…Read More
Almost every day a client tells me about receiving a phone call that sounds like a scam. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reported an increase in “neighbor spoofing”. Neighbor spoofing is when illegal robocallers use tactics to try and trick you into answering calls. Technology advances are behind the surge in calls according to the FCC. The robocallers hide behind a fake caller ID number that matches your area code and the first three digits of your phone number so you believe the call is local. You may even get a call that matches your phone number to avoid…Read More
Once again, scammers are trying to take advantage of citizens in Montgomery County. Local Circuit Clerk Tiffany McCord stated her office has received about thirty complaints from residents who received a “civil citation” by email. The email stated in the “citation” that $711 was owed to the county. The “citations” are fake and intended to scam you out of money. Be Aware! The county nor other agencies like the IRS will email you a bill. Any bill from a government agency will be mailed to you. Further, most of the time you will be expecting a bill since you are…Read More
In Alabama, as in most states, a number of people struggle each month to pay for prescription costs. For those Alabamians, a new program at Publix Pharmacy locations is going to bring big relief. The new program called “The Next Best Thing to Free” will offer a 90 day supply on a certain number of drugs for common ailments for out-of-pocket costs of only $7.50, regardless of whether you have insurance coverage or not. The Extent of Publix’s Program The prescriptions treat of wide variety of ailments and conditions, including: Heart/Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Mental Health, Seizure Disorders, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease,…Read More
Three days ago, Yahoo News reported on Americans’ love of their plastic. According to the story, the Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit card balances jumped 13% in November of last year. That means that Americans’ credit card debt now exceeds $1 trillion. How much is that? Well, let’s say you had $1 trillion in cash money in your basement (lucky you! Right?). If you decided to divide that cash into equal piles of $1 BILLION per pile, you would have 1,000 piles of cash! Or, put another way, if you had $1 trillion, you could spend $1 BILLION per…Read More
The last tax reform plan passed about 30 years ago, which is how old many of us millennials are today. Considering tax reform only comes along so seldom, I thought it appropriate to pick up on an article from CNN Money and lay out the provisions from the new tax law that will affect millennials through much of our working lives. As the article points out, key provisions dealing with tuition (like tax exclusions for employee-sponsored tuition and tuition waivers) are still available. For anyone burdened with what seems like insurmountable student loan debt, you should be somewhat happy about…Read More
With everything we all must worry about these days, it’s easy to avoid thinking about what is on your credit report. You may even wonder if you need to worry about it even if you aren’t in the market to borrow money for a car or a home. The answer is yes, you do. Aside from preventing you from obtaining a loan for a big-ticket item, credit report errors can cost you a job or cause you to pay higher interest rates. What Credit Reporting Agencies (Should) Do The big three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are supposed…Read More
