Employment law and consumer protection, explained by the attorneys who litigate it. Straight answers on your rights at work and in the marketplace.
Consumer Rights
Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media passwords are off limits! Thanks to new Labor Code section 980 employers or potential employers will not be able to ask you for your social media passwords. Unless, the request is made to a current employee as part of an investigation of allegations of employee misconduct or […]
Consumer Rights
As an employee you are protected by the The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), should you find yourself in situation where it is necessary to take medical leave. Both of these acts provide you the opportunity to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain “qualified” events. […]
Consumer Rights
Just heard from a new client who says she keeps getting robocalls from a company promising to lower her credit card interest rates. Yet her phone number is registered on both the federal Do Not Call list. When she pushes 1 to talk to a rep, the person hangs up as soon as she asks for any information. Pressing 2 to discontinue […]
Consumer Rights
Many Payday Lenders bank on your need for fast cash that you probably can not pay back. And be forewarned Payday Loan debt collectors are some of the most aggressive out there! There are alternatives to using payday lenders, including social service and faith-based organizations. If you are on Social Security, you might be eligible […]
Consumer Rights
The Federal Trade Commission, (FTC) has filed suit against Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and three of its subsidiaries, alleging failures to maintain reasonable security that led to three separate data breaches involving hackers accessing sensitive consumer data. The FTC’s complaint claims that Wyndham violated the FTC Act by posting misleading representations on Wyndham websites regarding how the company […]
Consumer Rights
The Federal Trade Commission, (FTC) has announced an investigation into nine data brokers, known as, Axciom, Corelogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, Peekyou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future, that collect your personal information from public and private sources and sell it to ad agencies, telemarketers, etc… These nine brokers will be required to provide information about how they collect consumer data, what they do […]
Consumer Rights
New legislation is being proposed that could change the debt collection system in for student loans. Under the new system, student loan payments would be automatically withdrawn from borrowers’ paychecks. With this new bill employers would withhold payments from wages in the same way they withhold taxes. The maximum payment withdrawn would be 15 percent of a borrowers’ income, after […]
Consumer Rights
Ugh! You pick up the phone, hear a silence, then a click, followed by a friendly sounding voice introducing themselves, sometimes its Debbie sometime a different name. Are you sick of getting telemarketing robo-dial phone calls that sound like that? According to the Federal Trade commission , they are most likely illegal in addition to being annoying. Debbie is […]
Consumer Rights
We are, too! We think the price that you agree to pay over the phone or online should be the price you should be charged, not a starting bid for the hotel to add fees to after you have checked in. If they are going to charge an extra $25 “resort fee”, we believe that […]
Consumer Rights
California resident, Ran Phantom allegedly ran a debt collection scam from his home, according to the Federal trade Commission (FTC). The defendants’ scheme involved more than 2.7 million calls to at least 600,000 different phone numbers nationwide, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In less than 2 years, they fraudulently collected more than $5.2 million from consumers, many of […]
Consumer Rights
If a debt collector has used profanity or yelled at you, do not get upset, get even! According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, (FDCPA) debt collectors are not allowed to curse at you when attempting to collect a debt. Consequently, it is against the law for debt collectors to verbally abuse you by screaming at you, […]
Consumer Rights
My office receives several calls a month from annoyed consumers, regarding debt collectors calling them about someone else’s debt. I recently had a client call me complaining that he had been getting calls every day on his cell phone from a debt collector looking for a “Mr. Miller”. He told the debt collector that he did not know […]
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