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I am not a bankruptcy attorney, but I have helped many clients understand when they should look into bankruptcy and when there is no need for a bankruptcy filing because the clients have no assets that creditors can reach. If you are concerned that you are drowning in debt and don't know a good bankruptcy attorney to consult, you can make an appointment with my assistant and discuss your situation; I will be happy to refer you to good consumer bankruptcy attorneys if we decide that bankruptcy is appropriate for your situation. Below is another article in the terrific series by the National Consumer Law Center on this important subject. Deciding Whether to File for Bankruptcy: Consumer Debt Advice from NCLC
A lot of people mistakenly think that only consumers and consumer attorneys use class actions. NOT TRUE. The biggest beneficiaries of class actions, on the whole, are investors, who have very little ability to police shady corporate managers unless they can band together (you know, as a class . . . a class of investors in the company) to bring the management frauds to light. Class actions are one of the major reasons an American can invest money in the stock market and sleep at night. Without them, our stock markets would look even more like better parlors staffed by pickpockets eager to relieve you of your life savings. Paul Bland of Public Justice calls attention to an important story on this point: Have you EVER met an investor who said "I voted hoping that the President would make it easier for scam artists to steal my life savings, the way it is in China?"
In Oregon as in Arizona and New Mexico -- Never take your eyes off the dealer (the car dealer)8/27/2018 Remember -- you have EVERY RIGHT to take the paperwork home from a car dealer so you can get help reading and understanding it at your leisure before you sign! A car salesman who says "I can't hold this car for you if you leave" is a liar trying to pressure you into signing on the dotted line without having help reviewing the contract. FTC press release: Not all dealers play by the rules. In a case announced today, the FTC alleges that Tate’s Auto Center of Winslow, Inc. — as well as related dealerships in Arizona and New Mexico and their owner and manager, Richard Berry -- * used deceptive advertising to get people in the door, * failed to disclose required financing terms, and * frequently falsified consumers’ income and down payment information in an effort to close the deal. Instead of using the income information people gave, Tate’s often inflated numbers to make it look like people had higher monthly incomes. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/08/ftc-charges-auto-dealerships-arizona-new-mexico-falsifying
Salem Harvest - Gleaning nonprofit has harvested almost 2 million pounds of food to fight hunger8/3/2018 Notes from the Field August 2018 Reaching New Heights 2 Million Pounds Harvested! At the time of writing this email, the total amount of fresh, local produce that Salem Harvest and our volunteers had harvested since 2010 was 1,992,862 pounds! Awesome to think that nearly 2 Million pounds of healthy food has been saved from being wasted and, instead, made available for hungry families in our community. I wonder what we will be harvesting when we reach the 2 million mark in a few weeks..... Clamshell Recovery Having family sized containers to put fruit like blueberries into at the harvest site, is something Salem Harvest has taken for granted. Marion Polk Food Share had always provided them. This year however, the usual clamshell donation wasn't received. Thanks to a new and growing partnership between Salem Harvest and AC Foods - Silver Mountain Packing, we are being provided the much needed clamshells and they are reducing waste from their blueberry packing facility. Slightly damaged clamshells are being set aside for our use rather than being tossed out. So far, nine pallets of plastic, one and two pound clamshells have been rescued. Thanks AC Foods - Silver Mountain Packing! Really important to read the post excerpt below and to watch the whole Netflix video (trailer above): HOW YOU CAN COMMENT: From Paul Bland of Public Justice:
There's a website where you can find out whether the safety recalls for a used car you're considering have been performed on that car. You just need the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number, the unique 17-digit vehicle identifier that is tied to the vehicle history reports). What you need to remember is that this is something the car industry could have done years before. But the government had to do it because the basic busines model of the used car industry is to sell crap cars for much more than they are worth to unsuspecting buyers fooled by promises of "125 point inspections" and other nonsense. Remember! If you can't afford to have your own independent mechanic do a thorough top-to-bottom pre-purchase inspection on a car you're thinking of buying, you can't afford the car anyway so get the hell away from it before it sinks you financially. Really. If the $100-$150 for a rigorous, independent inspection is too much for you to pay, then how are you going to possibly pay for all the problems that arise when your "as is" piece of junk suddenly demonstrates its true condition to you, soon after purchase? NHTSA recall check site This is another in a series of articles published by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). If you are an Oregonian and you are being pursued for old criminal justice debts
It's difficult to win even the strongest case against businesses willing to rip you off or provide shoddy goods or services. Shady businesses start out with a bunch of the inherent advantages and success against them is by no means a slam dunk. But even the strongest, best imaginable case can turn into a sure loser if you have outsmarted yourself by buying or leasing something (car/truck/boat/RV/ATV/motorcycle, vacation rental, phone service, timeshare, computer, etc.) but then getting cute by putting the purchased/leased goods in the name of your business, thinking that this will let you deduct costs of the item from your business taxes or let you avoid insuring the goods yourself, etc. The first, obvious problem is that this is that you may be doing tax fraud that way. But there is a less-obvious problem that is potentially far more harmful in most cases: Consumer protection laws generally only help you if you are a consumer -- meaning that you bought/leased the goods, services, or real estate for "personal, family, or household purposes." Every now and then I have to tell a prospective client who has clearly been wronged with defective goods that I can't help them. And it's all because of a decision they made when they bought that big-ticket item: they put it in the name of their business. As this doozy of a decision below from another state shows, this can be a VERY costly mistake. Bottom line: Don't fool around trying to make things seem different than what they are. The universe has a way of making you pay for that. 1) If it's your personal car/boat/truck/RV/ATV/motorcycle/computer/timeshare/etc., pay for it with your own money and title it in your own name. 2) If it's a business car/boat/truck/RV/ATV/motorcycle/computer/timeshare/etc., put it in the business name and pay for it with the business money, and don't use it for personal use, or you may lose your ability to deduct those payments as business expenses. (Extra credit if you also conclude that the bottom line should have a third point, "3) Never buy an RV, period" -- but the first two points above apply to more than just RVs.) Knopick v. Jayco, Inc. Thanks to Zach Stark of Wagon Wheel Web Development in Eugene (and to prior genius work by Salem's Dick Yates, developer of the amazing software behind Gleanweb.org), Oregonians again have access to a readable, human-friendly presentation of the Oregon Administrative Rules, which the Secretary of State publishes but only makes available in a very hard-to-read format without any indentations or other reading aids. Compare the two presentations of the same text below:
Tell Legal Aid: Divest NOW from Bank Whose Crimes Hurt and are STILL Hurting Real Oregonians7/3/2018 Wells Fargo -- the bank with the getaway vehicle for a logo -- blames its widespread criminal conduct not on its management but instead on thousands of rank and file employees who weren't in charge of anything. The Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) employees union rightly wants LASO to pull its money out from a rapacious criminal bank that is still working to screw over real, ordinary Oregonians every day. They're spending millions on new branding advertising, claiming that they were "Established 1858, and re-established in 2018" but at the same time they are still fighting all over the country to deny consumers any chance to have their day in court. LASO executives continue to ignore the LASO workers union, so we're holding a rally to show our support -- money donated to help real people should NOT be invested in large scale criminal enterprises like Wells Fargo until they have made a complete accounting for all their crimes and they stop trying to force the victims of their crimes into secret forced arbitration rackets. "Monopoly Man" Amanda Werner (above) from Public Justice is flying in from Washington DC to lead our march on July 30 at noon in Portland's Pioneer Square. Good Summary of the Wells Fargo scandals from Wikipedia. www.DivestFromWellsFargo.com This is one of the most frequent and difficult problems I run into - calls from people who are shocked to see their paycheck reduced by a wage garnishment or who are suddenly bouncing checks and getting hit with overdraft fees for debits and failed payment fees because their bank accounts were garnished ... This problem is why you should NEVER ignore a demand letter or a lawsuit -- the problem you cause yourself when you do is always exponentially larger and more expensive to solve than the one you started with.
If baseball is your thing, early July is probably the perfect time for it -- and on July 5th, you can earmark 50% of your tickets to supporting Oregon Paralyzed Veterans of America by buying through the website, following the instructions below.
Order your Tickets On-Line to Support the Oregon Paralyzed Veterans of America. Game Day July 5th Time 6:35 PM Salem/Keizer Volcanoes TO EARMARK 50% of the price of your party's tickets to support OPVA, 1) Go to the website Portal www.bit.ly/ParalyzedVets 2) Click "I am not a robot" 3) Enter 7052018 as the group password 4) Then select your tickets and pay for them Mick Mulvaney is the Darth Vader of the Trump Administration when it comes to hating real people and worshiping at the feet of his Emperors, the corporate masters who own him. Mulvaney hates the very idea of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that a bought and sold Congress cannot neuter because it is funded independently like the Federal Reserve and EVERY OTHER financial agency. Mulvaney wants to make CFPB like the FCC and FTC and all the other agencies that have been totally neutered and rendered impotent by a Congress in hock to campaign contributors who crack the whip and watch their minions jump. A consumer attorney in Ohio isn't having any of this, and has put the entire CFPB consumer complaints database online outside the CFPB's control, and promises to keep it updated -- so even as Mulvaney tries to hide the complaints, this new database will ensure that real people will be able to access it. DannLaw launches "Scoundrels, Scams and Cheats" database to ensure public access to CFPB consumer complaint reports |
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John Gear Law Office LLC and Salem Consumer Law. John Gear Law Office is in Suite 208B of the Security Building in downtown Salem at 161 High St. SE. That is right across High Street from the Elsinore Theater, a half-block south of Marion County Courthouse.
John Gear is only licensed to practice law in Oregon. This site may be considered advertising under Oregon State Bar rules. There is no legal advice on this site so do not take anything you read here as advice for your particular problem or situation. And I do not represent you and I am not your attorney unless you have hired me with a representation agreement. While I do want you to consider me when you seek an attorney, you should not hire any attorney based on brochures, websites, advertising, or other promotional materials. All original content on this site is Copyright John Gear, 2010-2022. |