This story is both funny and sad. A man received 2000 credit cards from Exxon with his name and account number on them. If you read this story from the always excellent Consumerist, make sure and read the comments. There is one about someone being billed $1.07 (with the threat of a late charge) and sending the gas company 107 checks for a penny each.
You know an article about the British legal system has to be good when the title is "No Wonder Their Empire Collapsed" by the ever funny Legal Juice blog. This is a short post well worth the time to click over and read.... thankfully we never have anything crazy happen in our American justice system.....do we?
The Legal Juice has reported a story about a guy surrounded by police who then, in their presence, calls 911. If you want to read this strange story, click here. By the way, the Legal Juice is one of the more entertaining blogs out there - it just happens to deal with legal issues.
The Consumerist has a post entitled "Best of Bank of America". Only read this if you would like to be amazed at what Bank of America has done...
We have spent many years handling personal injury and wrongful death cases for Alabama residents and have often heard the tort reform zealots bemoan "big lawsuits". When we read in the Legal Juice this story about former supreme court nominee and tort reformist Robert Bork, it did not surprise us - see he is suing over a slip and fall for over one million dollars plus the "horrible" punitive damages!
We have often observed that those who preach the loudest against tort reform (insurance companies, executives, etc) will sue in a heart beat if they feel anybody has "done them wrong".
Read the full story here which also contains the complaint filed this month. The irony is so thick you can cut it....
PS - read here for a fascinating discussion among tort reformists arguing over whether Bork's suit is an embarrassment or not to those attacking plaintiff's attorneys and anyone who files a lawsuit. Its good stuff.
Final PS - we certainly sympathize with Bork's injury and don't begrudge him the right to seek justice before a jury.... we just wonder if now perhaps he is more sympathetic to those normal people who are hurt or cheated.... Time will tell....
Denise Richardson has a great post that lists the "Top 10 Things You Will Never Hear From The Big Three Credit Bureaus". Please read this funny but sad post and the rest of her excellent site.
One time as I was passing an intersection I saw a police car stopped and a car very close behind. The officer was out of the car and then I realized some unfortunate soul had rear ended the police officer. I was reminded of this when I read this post at the South Carolina Trial Law Blog (an excellent blog by the way - I read all the posts there). Hopefully no one was hurt so read the post and enjoy the picture.
Click here for a wonderful story on a slumlord who has been ordered to stay in his own building.... Here is a description:
Lakewood Municipal Judge Patrick Carroll ordered Richard Naumann to live in his Lake Avenue apartment building -- which has no heat, hot water, operable stoves or ovens...
In this humorous yet scary post by Finis Price, he details an experiment he has done while purchasing computers, etc for his new solo practice. Let's listen as he tells it in his own words:
How do I know this? Well, I’ve done sort of an experiment over the past three weeks; actually it’s an extension of something I do with my personal debit card to get my wife riled up. I sign the receipt or digital screen they present me with whatever name comes to mind at the time e.g. Big Poppe (nickname I have for my friend Hans Poppe), Micky Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Spider Man, Heckel and Jeckel, you get the idea. Not a single cashier has even batted an eye when I do this, even when I write on the digital tablet and it’s presented on the register monitor right in front of them and then reprinted onto my copy of the receipt.At first I thought my hand-writing was so illegible they couldn’t see what I was writing and so just ignored it. So I decided to start printing “Bob the Builder” for my name (yes, I came up with this when purchasing something at Home Depot). Now there is no way they can confuse “Bob the Builder” for Finis R. Price, III, which is how I sign my name.
What scares me is that even this most simple way of verifying the identity of a card user, is the purchased signing with the same name as is printed on the card, is not being used. I’m not even complaining that they don’t verify my signature resembles the one on the back of the card, they aren’t even looking at it! This troubles me, especially since every bank I go to, even my own, go to such great lengths to verify my identity as to require me to present three forms of ID. They don’t do that to the caucasian customers in front or behind me, heck, they don’t even do it to my wife, which she has finally started noticing after my own bank had to call and verify I truly was issued a check. She’s not part Puerto Rican, so she doesn’t get this sort of ’special attention’. But the point is, if the bank is targeting me for possible identity theft, even when they see me every week, why aren’t these cashiers?
I guess you get what you pay for; how can they expect more from these teenagers working at Best Buy when they pay them $5.25 an hour? Now I know why identity theft is so rampant.
One of the most entertaining blogs we read is the Legal Juice - we enjoy the posts very much. A really strange story involves chewing tobacco and human toes. Here's an excerpt:
Really. Mr. Bryson Pillars was chewing some tobacco when ... [I'll let the Mississippi Supreme Court take it from here. They just don't write them like they used to.]It seems that appellant [Mr. Pillars] consumed one plug of his purchase, which measured up to representations, that it was tobacco unmixed with human flesh, but when appellant tackled the second plug it made him sick, but, not suspecting the tobacco, he tried another chew, and still another, until he bit into some foreign substance, which crumbled like dry bread, and caused him to foam at the mouth, while he was getting "sicker and sicker."
If you can, click here to read the rest of this story and check out the other posts on Legal Juice.
Robert Duff is a consumer attorney in Indiana with an informative website (http://www.indianaconsumerlawgroup.com/index.html) and blog(http://www.indianaconsumerlawgroup.com/index.html). He has a recent post on a strange story that does appear to be out of a Seinfeld episode:
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.
Read the rest of this amusing post here - http://www.indianaconsumerlawyerblog.com/2007/04/he_thought_they_just_wouldnt_n_1.html
We haven't checked out this site to know whether it is worthwhile, but we do admit that the post about James Bond being an Identity Thief is somewhat funny, particularly for those of us who have enjoyed watching the James Bond movies over the years.
You can read this amusing post here - http://www.creditlock.com/jamesbond007.html
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