Category: Consumer Law

Negotiate in odd numbers

An interesting article in Scientific American called Why Things Cost $19.95 investigates whether or not the common merchant tactic of listing a price as $19.95 rather than $20.00 is really effective. Read a snipit of the article below and learn how this impacts the practice of law. “Why Things Cost $19.95” Article There were three scenarios […]

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Lemon Law

North Carolina, like several other states, has a “lemon law” statute for the purchase or lease of new vehicles.  Titled the New Motor Vehicles Warranties Act, the statute protects the buyer of a new motor vehicle, including cars, pickup trucks, motorcycles, vans and motor homes weighing less than 10,000 pounds from defective vehicles.  Under this […]

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Tenant’s Rights in Foreclosure UPDATE

I have previously written about the protection tenants have when their landlord gets foreclosed on their rental property. The main protection for renters was the federal law entitled “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009.” Unfortunately, that law expired on December 31, 2014 and a new federal law has not been passed to take its […]

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Private to Public Roads

Usually when a new planned community is build, the developer will build and install the infrastructure of the neighborhood, including the roads. At this time, they, along with all the lots and common areas, are owned by the developer. The developer should also incorporate a homeowner’s association at this time. The developer will then typically […]

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Damages for Non-Compete Clauses

I’ve written before about non-compete clauses, particularly for employment contracts. Basically, the law allows for an agreement in an employment contract or contract for the sale of a business to limit that employee or former employee from competing with their former employer. As long as the competition is reasonably restricted as to how long it […]

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Indemnity, Exculpatory and Hold Harmless

Cropped screenshot of title from the trailer for the film Double Indemnity (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Has this ever happened to you? You are getting ready to race go-karts, rent a truck, scuba dive, or lease a storage unit and the owner hands you a document to sign. Maybe you read over it, maybe you just […]

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Preventative Medicine

Once I had to explain to one of my kids why they had to brush their teeth every night. I told them I knew it was a hassle and took up ten minutes that they could use to play Angry Birds, but it was important because they could get cavities and we’d have to go […]

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Warranties

You can get good bargains from buying things from classified ads, or Craig’s List, or at a garage sale. Aside from scams, the biggest problem is what happens when you get that new (to you) boat, vacuum cleaner, Betamax, or automatic tomato planter, home and it quits working. What protection do you have? Legally, you […]

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A Hobbit’s Contract

     My first-grader and I have been reading “the Hobbit,” in anticipation of the movie coming out this month. While it was one of my favorite books as a kid, I had not read it in many years. Doing so, I was surprised at the amount of legal issues in the books, particularly contract law, […]

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Asset Protection

  Asset protection employs legal techniques that deter others from taking, or in some cases, attempting to take your assets. The complexity of any asset protection plan depends largely on what types of assets you have, and what type of work you do. A typical asset protection case involves the formation of one or more […]

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