Paying extra to buy a certified pre-owned car is supposed to bring you peace of mind. But don't count on it. There has been a sharp increase in the number of cases involving certified used cars that have been previously wrecked or have other substantial problems, says the consumer attorney Daniel Blinn of the Connecticut-based Consumer Law Group.

"I’m going nuts with these certified pre-owned vehicles," said Blinn, who recently blogged about the problem. He says he currently has about a half dozen cases centering on certified used vehicles. One involves a certified 2010 Mazda that Blinn says was sold to an unsuspecting consumer after being wrecked and then poorly repaired.

Consumers pay a premium for certified used cars because those vehicles typically come with a manufacturer's warranty and are marketed as having been thoroughly checked to ensure the vehicle meets high manufacturer standards. For example, Toyota boasts of a certified pre-owned checklist that includes 160 items. "We check 160 points," the Toyota website says. "All to prove one point: Only the best get to be Toyota Certified Used Vehicles."

But they may not be the best after all, says Blinn, who points to evidence that some dealers don't conduct the detailed inspections. He said his office asked an independent auto expert to assess a certified Toyota that turned out to have been previously wrecked. He said the expert found such issues as dirty filters and misaligned headlights. He said some used cars have been certified even though they have clear signs of having been in a collision and undergone bodywork, including mismatched paint, over spray, and unresolved structural problems. He said auto body experts have deemed some unsafe to drive.

For more information, contact www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034.

Five former Bills cheerleaders on Tuesday sued the team over a pay system they say had them working hundreds of hours for free at games and at mandatory public appearances where they sometimes were subjected to groping and sexual comments, and one said they had to take a jiggle test so their boss could see how firm their bodies were.

The state Supreme Court lawsuit is the third filed this year against an NFL team by cheerleaders. The Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals also have pending wage battles.

The case against the Bills says its cheerleaders, the Buffalo Jills, are wrongly classified as independent contractors and are subjected to policies that violate the state's $8 per hour minimum wage law and other workplace rules. Two members of the Jills squad held a news conference Tuesday with their attorney, Frank Dolce.

For more information about sexual harassment go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

  

Target Corp began a major public relations effort on Monday to apologize to customers for an unprecedented cyber attack on its network, but the No. 3 U.S. retailer was vague in providing details about what it knew and when.

The company has so far disclosed that the breach started in late November and lasted 19 days over the peak holiday shopping season, resulting in the theft of about 40 million credit card records and 70 million other records containing customer data.

For more information about fraud and other causes of action in Texas go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

 

 

A Plano-based debt collection company has agreed to pay a $3.2 million civil penalty and to stop harassing consumers with what the Federal Trade Commission called "allegedly illegal debt collection calls."

Expert Global Solutions, which the FTC said is the world's largest debt collection operation, was hit with what the agency said was the largest penalty ever obtained by the FTC.

In its complaint, the commission alleged that Expert Global Solutions violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the FTC Act by utilizing such tactics as calling early in the morning or late at night; calling multiples times in one day, even after being asked to stop; calling the workplaces of consumers even knowing that the employers prohibited such calls; and by leaving phone messages with third parties that included information about the debtor's name and the existence of the debt.

The FTC said that Expert Global Solutions also continued to make collection efforts without verifying a debt, even after consumers told the company they did not owe the debt.

For more information about unfair debt collections practices go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

 

 

 

On May 2, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Texas UTSA) into law. The purpose of the act is to provide uniformity with other states in the protection of trade secrets, with Texas joining the overwhelming majority of states in adopting a version of the model Uniform Trade Secrets Act (model UTSA). Although Texas courts often cited the model UTSA in trade secret cases, Texas had not expressly adopted it. As a result, whether a particular category of information would be classified as "trade secrets" was difficult to predict and often turned on the facts of a particular case. While the new law will not end the fact-specific nature of trade secret inquiry, it should provide more guidance and broader protection of information under Texas law. The new law takes effect on September 1, 2013 and governs any misappropriation of a trade secret that occurs on or after that date. A misappropriation occurring prior to September 1, 2013 will not be governed by the Texas UTSA.

For more information about trade secrets, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

 

A former waitress at a strip club agreed to a $60,000 settlement on her claim that she was fired because of her age. In 2006, Mary Bassi, then 56, filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She worked at a club owned and operated W.L. York Inc. She had previously worked at a separate club owned by AHD Houston Inc. She claimed they were a joint enterprise. Bassi alleged that two male managers made disparaging remarks about Bassi's age, including telling her she was showing signs of Alzheimer's disease. She claimed the defendants began scheduling younger waitresses for shifts in place of her, despite her positive work record and lack of disciplinary actions. She was then fired without cause or explanation.

For more information about age discrimination claims in Texas go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

One year ago, The U.S. FTC fined shoe manufacturer Skechers $40 Million over its ads for “Shape-Ups” shoes.  The shoes were marketed as being able to help users lost weight and tone the muscles in their lower bodies.  Skechers was banned from running the ads further and customers who bought the shoes could receive refunds from the FTC or join a class-action lawsuit against the shoe company.

“Skechers’ unfounded claims went beyond stronger and more toned muscles,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  “The company even made claims about weight loss and cardiovascular health.  The FTC’s message, for Skechers and other national advertisers, is to shape up your substantiation or tone down your claims.”

This week, a federal judge approved the $40 million class-action settlement between Skechers and “Shape-Ups” customers.  According to an Associated Press report on the lawsuit, more than 520,000 people can claim up to $80 for a pair of “Shape-Ups,” $84 for a pair of “Resistance Runner” shoes, $54 for a pair of “Podded Sole” shoes, and $40 for a pair of “Tone-Ups.”  $5 million of the settlement was awarded to the lawyers in the case.

For more information aobut fraud in Texas, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

 

 

More than three years after Leanne Siri, once the top-ranking female in Dallas Fire-Rescue, sued the city for retaliation and discrimination, the end of the litigation is near: On Wednesday the Dallas City Council will vote to settle the case for $390,000.

That’s according to the council’s briefing agenda, which offers a very brief summation of years’ worth of investigations, rulings and federal legal filings that involved three other female fire department officials with whom the city has already settled for a total of $255,000. The city, which admitted no wrongdoing in the cases involving, among others, former Dallas Fire Chief Eddie Burns and City Manager Mary Suhm, has also paid out more than $1 million in outside legal fees. 

For more information about sexual harassment, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

Cisco Systems Inc. was on the short end of a $70 million verdict by a federal jury in Delaware that said the California-based tech giant was guilty of "fraud by concealment" in a short-lived partnership with New York-based XpertUniverse Inc.

Cisco, which has a large campus in Richardson, also violated two of XpertUniverse's patents, the jury said in awarding additional damages of about $34,000.

A Cisco spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that the verdict surprised the company and said Cisco was confident that its conduct "was appropriate throughout our relationship with XpertUniverse."

XpertUniverse's complaint centered around plans to integrate its business technology of locating and interacting with experts over the Internet with Cisco's routing technology, the Journal said.

According to the complaint, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) told XpertUniverse that it didn't have the resources to continue the joint project, but later introduced an offering of its own called "Expert on Demand," the same name used by XpertUniverse for its product, the Journal said.

For more information about fraud and misrepresentation, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com