Articles Posted in NEWS AND COMMENTARY

In San Diego, many residents are home owners. In San Diego, as well, most home owners have a mortgage and insurance policy. Many companies such as Farmers and State Farm and Geico may have home owner insurance policies. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP does not endorse or represent any of these companies and the links are placed for information purposes only. If you have any questions, please feel free to e mail our office.

Reading and understanding all of the language in a homeowners’ insurance policy are not formalities to be skipped over while searching for the signature line. As with any contract, the fine print can have real and lasting consequences, and its contents will control over any contradictory verbal assurances. Taking the time to understand the terms of their policies might have headed off bad outcomes for homeowners in two recent cases.

Business Purposes Exclusion

In San Diego, there are thousands of employers. It is important to keep current with the laws regarding the Department of Labor. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation does not practice in labor law however we can refer you to the San Diego County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service which has a panel of qualified employment and labor law attorneys. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us by e mail or phone.

The U.S. Department of Labor has published a guidebook to provide businesses with general information on the laws and regulations that the Department enforces. The guidebook describes the statutes most commonly applicable to businesses and explains how to obtain assistance from the Department for complying with them.

The authority of the Department of Labor extends to many statutes, but the following are several that affect most employers: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA); Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA); Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

In San Diego, the laws of the State of California apply as well as the Federal law. It is important to understand the correlation between the two. If you have any questions regarding this, please e mail our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation.

The Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to enforce clauses in commercial contracts that require arbitration of disputes. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce are exempt from the Act. For other types of workers, the effect of the Supreme Court ruling was to reaffirm the enforceability of mandatory arbitration provisions in agreements entered into by workers engaged in interstate commerce.

Interstate Commerce Requirement

In San Diego, there are many casinos. The below example happened in Las Vegas. Local casinos also may offer lines of credit or other incentives to gamble. In San Diego County alone, the casinos include Sycuan, Barona, Viejas, Harrahs and many others. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation offers a complimentary consultation by phone or e mail. Our law firm does not endorse, represent or support any of the casinos listed above and these are used for illustrative purposes only and were not the casino in the below example and no allegations regarding the misconduct in the below case is attributed to these casinos.

Steven was a multimillionaire businessman with a fondness for high-stakes gambling. His reputation as a high roller led a Las Vegas resort to recruit him to gamble at the grand opening of its new casino. The enticement from the casino was a $2 million line of credit.

When Steven was just getting warmed up in what figured to be a long stretch of gambling, casino officials informed him that he had used up the line of credit, plus several million dollars of his own money. Steven had been gambling not with chips but with a “player card,” and cameras had been recording his betting results. He strongly disputed how much in the red he really was, but the casino made him leave the premises.

In San Diego, there are many banks which issue credit cards. It is very important to review all of the terms and conditions of any credit card offer before and after approval. This is not a San Diego case, however the issue which arises has also arisen for many San Diego residents. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation offers a complimentary consultation by phone or e mail. If we cannot assist you, we will refer you to the San Diego County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service which can refer a qualifiied attorney in the specific area of law you require.

In a variation on the typical “bait-and-switch” scheme, a bank made a promotional offer of a “no annual fee” credit card, then changed the terms mid-year to require such a fee. A credit card holder sued the bank under the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA). She alleged a violation of the requirement in TILA that an issuer of a credit card disclose the terms of the card accurately and without misleading statements. A federal court allowed the lawsuit to continue.

Both the advertisement soliciting customers for the credit card and the card holder agreement stated that no annual fee would be charged, but the agreement also stated more generally that the bank had the right to change any of the terms at any time. The bank maintained that the latter provision gave it the right to impose an annual fee whenever it wanted.

In San Diego, there are many companies competing for business. Attorney marketing and advertising are regulated by the State Bar of California. Attorneys also have to comply with the federal law as below. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation is located in San Diego, California and is a Limited Liability Partnership registered with the State Bar. If you have any legal questions, please feel free to call or e mail us.

The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits advertising that is untruthful, deceptive, or unfair, and it requires advertisers to have evidence to back up their claims. There are also other federal laws applicable to advertisements for specific types of products and state laws that apply to ads running in particular states.

Unfairness

San Diego has many banks and credit unions. These include Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Union Bank, San Diego County Credit Union and others which have both office locations in San Diego as well as on line banking. In addition, there are many on line banks which do not have branches in San Diego, California. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation does not endorse or represent any of these institutions and the links are provided for reference purposes only. If you have any questions, please feel free to e mail us. There are advantages and disadvantages of using on line banking.

Banks that rely on the Internet and other low-cost ways to provide service, as opposed to “bricks and mortar” branch offices, can save on expenses and pass the savings along to customers in higher returns on deposits and lower interest rates on loans. Online banking also gives customers the convenience of being able to monitor their accounts and complete transactions around the clock, without waiting for mailed statements or being limited by office hours.

The flip side of online banking is that, if a problem arises, you cannot sit down face-to-face with someone from the bank to resolve it. There is also a premium on doing research to check out the legitimacy of an unfamiliar and remote institution before you entrust it with your money and private information. A good place to start is the “About Us” section of a bank’s website, which should at least give basic contact information. If it does not, that in itself should raise suspicions. Other warning signs include names or websites that are only slightly different from those of well-known institutions and rates of return that are far out of line with what other banks are offering. It is a good idea to confirm that an institution is federally insured by contacting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or searching its “Institution Directory” at www3.fdic.gov/idasp.

In San Diego, many residents have had their identity stolen creating negative information on their credit bureau reports. Some San Diego residents have incorrect information on their credit reports due to circumstances described below which is not a San Diego case. The three major reporting credit agencies are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. If you have any legal questions, please feel free to contact our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation by e mail or phone.

Judy discovered that her credit report from a large credit reporting agency erroneously included about a dozen accounts for a different person, also named Judith. The report identified Judy as using that person’s name as an alias. Unfortunately, the “other” Judith, who did exist, had a checkered debt-paying history that was erroneously presented as Judy’s in the credit report.

Judy’s own spadework revealed that the credit reporting agency had merged her information with that of the second Judith because they had similar first names, were born in the same year, were from the same part of the country, and, most importantly, their Social Security numbers differed by only one digit. This initial computer mistake was bad enough, but what ultimately led to a very large damages verdict for Judy was the inadequate response of the reporting agency once Judy had brought the errors to its attention.

In San Diego, there are many employers with 15 or more employees. It is crucial to follow all State and Federal laws relating to all facets of employment. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation can assist with many legal problems. Please e mail us directly with any questions.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits disability discrimination in employment for employers with 15 or more employees. The prohibition is far-reaching and covers hiring, firing, and everything in between, such as promotions, benefits, and harassment in the workplace. The smallest of businesses are not affected by the ADA because of the 15-employee threshold for coverage. The ADA does apply, however, to many of the roughly 25 million small businesses in the nation.

Who Is Protected?

In San Diego, there are many different security firms. These include K Tech Security, Brinks, Pinkerton, and many others. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation does not endorse any agency however the partner at our law firm is a distant relative of the original Pinkerton who founded the detective agency. If you or a loved one has been injured or killed by a security guard, please feel free to e mail us.

n a case, a manufacturing company contracted with a security firm to provide a security guard. The guard shot and killed an individual who was trespassing, but not for criminal purposes, on company property, after the person had obeyed the guard’s order to lie on the ground. The company argued that it could not be held liable for the negligent acts of an independent contractor, but a state supreme court ruled otherwise.

The court agreed that the security firm and its guard were independent contractors. The manufacturing company’s downfall was an exception to the rule of no liability for acts of independent contractors. If the work to be performed is inherently dangerous, the work can be delegated to an independent contractor, but the duty to use reasonable care cannot be avoided by the employer. Work is inherently dangerous when it involves a foreseeable risk of physical harm to others and requires special precautions.