February 13, 2008

PayDay Lenders Target the Elderly and Disabled In Alabama

We ran across this recent article titled "Social Insecurity: High-Interest Lenders Tap Elderly, Disabled" in the Wall Street Journal detailing how payday lenders have been targeting the elderly and disabled. This isn't something that is happening just in other parts of the country. The story was out of Dothan, Alabama and shows how Alabama's elderly and disabled have been targeted.
Payday lenders charge rates that would make some loan sharks blush and this article shows how they are targeting our elderly. We all need to be on the guard against this type of activity but particularly those of us who have elderly family and friends who might fall prey to this type of activity.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: PayDay Lenders , Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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July 21, 2007

Debt Collectors Threatening Jail Time, Seriously?

Occasionally some lunatic debt collector will tell our clients that they are going to jail if they don't pay off a credit card or medical bill. We normally sue the collectors for making such outrageous statements which are illegal. But this story by Liz Weston caught us off guard. It involves police officers and debt collectors and... well click here and read this strange story yourself....

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Collectors/Debt Buyers , Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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June 9, 2007

Alabama Seniors And Annuities

Alabama seniors, in particular, are facing a danger of misleading statements about annuities. Annuities are contracts where an insurance company promises to make regular payments to you in exchange for premiums that you pay. Sometimes the time period of getting paid is a fixed number of years (i.e. "$2,000 per month for ten years") and sometimes its as long as you live.

Here is the problem: there are unscrupulous agents who will use unfair pressure and lies to convince Alabama consumers (mainly seniors) to buy products that are more risky that promised or otherwise inappropriate.

Click here to read the warnings issued by the NASD on investments in general and for the specific warning regarding annuities and seniors.

If you have been a victim of fraud in the purchase of an annuity, contact us or an experienced litigation attorney to get advice on what your next step should be.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Stock Fraud , Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 28, 2007

Alabama Consumers Beware Of "Debt Settlement" Companies

Last week the FTC settled claims with debt settlement or debt elimination companies who had misled many consumers. Read here to find out more about this and to protect yourself. We often get contacted by people who are getting sued and they are shocked because they were working with one of these debt elimination companies. These companies can't prevent a creditor or debt collector/debt buyer from suing you so be careful in dealing with these debt elimination companies.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 26, 2007

Best Bypass Best Buy?

This one caught us off guard that a major store would do this:


The Connecticut Attorney General has announced a lawsuit against Best Buy in regards to a secret internal website that is identical from their public website except for the prices. Consumerist has received reports of this website being used to attempt to trick our readers as recently as March 19, 2007.

Customers coming into the store looking for prices they saw at home on the public website were told that the sale had ended and were shown a separate internal website that reflected different in-store prices. The customers were led to believe that they were looking at the same website they accessed at home.


Read the rest of this article at the Consumerist. One solution is to print off prices that you find on a store's website. Who knew you had to do that?
To be fair, here is the response from Best Buy:

Busch, Best Buy's spokeswoman, said the company intends to vigorously defend itself in court.

"The future of our company depends on our ability to build trusted relationships with our customers," Busch said.


Source - Yahoo news.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 22, 2007

How Abusers Use Credit Reports To Extort Money Out Of Alabama Consumers

Sometimes Alabama consumers ask us why they should worry about wrongful items being on credit reports? There are many answers but one is illustrated by this story which describes what appears to be a very aggressive tow truck operator who allegedly threatened to put (and maybe did put) wrong information on an Air Force officer's credit report.

While we don't know who is right or wrong in this case, we have seen unscrupulous creditors and debt collectors and collection agencies use the threat of putting false information on credit reports to force innocent people to pay money they don't owe. An attorney friend of ours was told one time by a collection agency that the debt collector knew the amount being collected was wrong "but it will mess up your refinance so why don't you just pay it". The attorney did. This type of misconduct must stop and suing the bad guys is certainly one way to motivate them to stop doing this....

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Credit Report Errors , Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 16, 2007

Alabama Consumers - Be Wary Of Extended Warranties On Cars

Alabama consumers are pressured into buying extended warranty agreements when buying cars. This recent post by Ronald Burdge shows why that may not be a good idea.

Extended warranties have been one of the highest profit customer ripoffs ever seen in the auto industry. Worse yet, with little regulation, they are likely to stay that way. So, what can you do to avoid being ripped off by one?

First, don't buy one. Everyone in the industry knows that the profits are high and the payout is low. No matter what they are wanting to charge you, the odds are that over half that money is pure profit to the car dealer. And if the warranty company's name isn't the same as an auto manufacturer, then you can bet that the profit margin is even higher, probably at least 60 percent and more likely 75 percent of the price is pure profit.


Please read this rest of this excellent post.
Ronald Burdge is an experienced consumer lawyer out of Ohio who has an extensive blog on consumer issues and lemon law. We have heard him speak at conferences and he knows his stuff.
Particularly if you are interested in consumer issues related to cars - subscribe to his blog. We do and find it very helpful.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 14, 2007

Alabama Customers Of Ameriquest - Listen To Former Employees

Thanks to Consumer Law and Policy blog for this post which picked up on an amazing NPR audio story. You will find interviews with former Ameriquest employees who detail the level of deception as Ameriquest made loans all over the country, including Alabama.
Given what we have heard from clients who were mistreated by Ameriquest, this story is very credible.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Foreclosure , Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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May 3, 2007

How Auto Dealers May Discriminate Against Minorities By Marking Up Interest Rates

On the Consumer Law and Policy Blog there is an interesting reference to an paper being prepared by Mark Cohen of Vanderbilt. This caught my eye for two reasons:

First, the paper points out the problems of auto dealers getting a quote for say, eight percent, but telling the customer the bank approved them for ten percent. The dealer keeps the spread. Professor Cohen argues this impacts minorities in particular.

Secondly, we have hired Professor Cohen in several multi million dollar truck wreck cases as an economist and he is perhaps the most credible and knowledgeable expert witness we have ever used. He truly knows his stuff.

When his paper comes out we will post a link to it as I'm sure it will be very well written and possbily expose this unsavory practice of lying to customers about what the interest rate they were approved for.

Posted by John G. Watts & M. Stan Herring | | Email This Post

Posted In: Unfair and Deceptive Practices

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Watts Law Group P.C.
& M. Stan Herring P.C.
Alabama Consumer Protection Lawyers
Phone: (205) 879-2447
or (205) 714-4443

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