Banks Mine Data and Woo Troubled Borrowers

October 23, 2008

Brenda Jerez hardly seems like the kind of person lenders would fight over.

 

Three years ago, she became ill with cancer and ran up $50,000 on her credit cards after she was forced to leave her accounting job. She filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

 

For months after she emerged from insolvency last fall, 6 to 10 new credit card and auto loan offers arrived every week that specifically mentioned her bankruptcy and, despite her poor credit history, dangled a range of seemingly too-good-to-be-true financing options.

 

“Good news! You are approved for both Visa and MasterCard — that’s right, 2 platinum credit cards!” read one buoyant letter sent this spring to Ms. Jerez, offering a $10,000 credit limit if only she returned a $35 processing fee with her application.

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

Calif. High Court Takes Meal Break Case

Wading into one of the most hotly contested labor issues of recent years, the California Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide what employers must do to comply with state-mandated meal breaks.

 

Review in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (Hohnbaum), S166350, had been sought not only by a potential class of an estimated 60,000 restaurant workers, but also by a slew of amici curiae, including Attorney General Jerry Brown, four state legislators and the California Labor Federation, which represents more than 2 million workers in a variety of professions.

 

The high court’s action — by a 6-0 vote with Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar absent — stays a July 22 decision by San Diego’s 4th District Court of Appeal, which held that employers are required to provide meal and rest breaks for their workers, but not to ensure they’re taken. The lower court also denied class certification, saying that alleged violations of meal and rest breaks involved individual claims that had to be resolved separately.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

Judge backs county inmates in jail case

A federal judge has sided with inmates’ claims that conditions in Maricopa County jails continue to violate their constitutional rights.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake on Wednesday modified a 1995 judgment that laid guidelines for a wide range of issues in Maricopa County jails, including medical and mental-health care, population control and record keeping.

Maricopa County sheriff’s officials said they plan to comply with the judge’s orders.

 

Wake effectively pared down the original 115-point decision to 16 paragraphs that outline what the Sheriff’s Office must do to at least maintain constitutional standards for pretrial inmates. The judgment also requires the Sheriff’s Office to submit quarterly reports to inmates’ attorneys in order to show compliance.

 

“Sheriff Arpaio’s horrendous treatment of detainees, especially those with severe medical and mental-health problems, has caused terrible suffering for years,” said attorney Margaret Winter, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project.

 

Read Article: The Arizona Republic

 

Posted By: Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

Target stores to pay $1.745 million to settle price scanning case

The Target stores company has agreed to pay $1.745 million in penalties and fees to end an action brought by several counties accusing it of failing to charge customers its lowest advertised prices.

 

In agreeing the pay the money, the company admitted no wrongdoing but consented to restitution and taking steps to make sure the mischarges do not happen again, according to a statement released from the Contra Costa District Attorneys Office this morning.

The judgment filed Monday in Contra Costa Superior Court requires Target to implement additional audit and price accuracy procedures in its California stores for four years to ensure pricing accuracy.

 

Target cooperated with inspectors and prosecutors and has since instituted practices to improve pricing accuracy. The case arose from regular scanner and price inspections by the Department of Weights and Measures in Contra Costa, Marin, Sonoma, Fresno and Santa Cruz, which coordinated their investigations with departments in other counties.

 

Read Article: Mercury News

 

Posted By: Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

Aviva settles annuity lawsuit

AvivaUSA has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the Minnesota attorney general that alleged the company sold unsuitable long-term deferred annuities to senior citizens.

AmerUs Life Insurance Co. and American Investors Life Insurance Co., which were bought by AvivaUSA in 2006, were charged with misrepresenting or failing to disclose terms of these annuities by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

Des Moines-based AvivaUSA is the nation’s largest seller of equity-indexed deferred annuities. Aviva said in a statement that the products sold were suitable for clients and “anticipates that this agreement will not have a material impact on the company.”

The settlement, approved by a Minnesota county judge Wednesday, calls for Aviva to refund about 4,500 policies made to Minnesota seniors. The policies have an estimated value of $250 million.

 

Read Article: Des Moines Register

 

Posted By: Phoenix Accident Injury Attorneys

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