50 State Attorneys general are in the final rounds of settlement negotiations over the robo signing fiasco of 2010. The robo signing was brought to light through a deposition taken by Maine attorney Tom Cox against GMAC. According to the NY times, GMAC the mortgage lender was bailed out to the tune of 17.2 billion. A GMAC employee admitted under oath to signing 10,000 affidavits a month which led to foreclosures. Continue reading →

From its days of inception, the days of land grants, even before the days Texas was the “Wild West”, it was known as a the places debtors (people who owed money) could flee to as a safe-haven. This was the case for several reasons. One was to promote settlement of the vast Texas wilderness, another: so many outlaws had made Texas home, that it became the norm. This culture has developed to what are known today as Homestead laws. There are two practical ways to look at Homestead in Texas: 1) the tax perspective, and 2) the liability perspective.
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In consumer rights law, DTPA stands for the Deceptive Trade Practice Act. The reason announced by the legislators for the passage of this law was that the act was created to give consumers and businesses an even playing field to resolve disputes about the purchase or sale of goods and services. If you have bought a product or service and you are unable to resolve your differences with the business owner then the law requires you to send the business owner a DTPA letter prior to filing a legal action. The DTPA letter specifically outlines the details of your purchase and the issues you have encountered with your product or service.

He alleged goal of the DTPA letter is to give the seller the opportunity to help the consumer remedy the problem with the good or service. Many attorneys should be able to help the consumer create the “laundry list” of issues you can address in relation to your problem with your good or service. As to the issue of the DTPA letter, the “laundry list” is a specific concept where the consumer picks from the types of problems with your good or service. The more specific you make your “laundry list”, the better the DTPA notice letter. Ultimately, the seller will have a defined time period to fix the situation with the consumer before the consumer will be allowed to file in Court. If a lawsuit is filed prior to a statute required letter, then the business owner can have the lawsuit abated, or stopped, until the required time period is used in an effort to first resolve the dispute. If you have an issue with a product or service, do your best to first work out your issues with the business management. In some instances, there have been situations where certain products or services seem to have a widespread problem. Whatever your issue is, a lawyer at Shawlawtexas should be able to give you the information you need to help you decide the next best step to take.

A borrowed statement from my kids (the (not) part) to demonstrate the craziness created by just signing a document and “hoping for the best.” It happens over and over that clients come to our office days, weeks or usually months after signing some document and were unaware of that documents effect until they brought it to us as part of other concerns. In very many situations, the document is not usually favorable or represents a coercion sorts. Continue reading →