Legal Eagles

Things Not to Say to a Federal Air Marshall

... while in an airplane.

"I don’t know who the guy in front of me thinks he is, but I’m going to whoop his a**.”

Bankruptcy Law Making Agencies Bankrupt

An interesting result of the new bankruptcy law is that it's Making Agencies Bankrupt

Faulty Penile Transplant gets $400,000

10 years is a long time.

Manson trial judge dies

From the LA Times:

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Herman Older had been on the bench only a few years when the trial of accused mass murderer Charles Manson landed in his courtroom. By the time the 10-month, highly publicized trial ended, he was a veteran.

Parolees rights?

And don't include much Fourth Amendment privacy expectation.

Not libel for false ID as sex offender

Can you sue a newpaper for wrongfully saying you're a sex offender?  Not in Texas.

Credit counseling in new bankruptcy law useless

Some experts are stating that the new mandatory credit counseling in the new bankruptcy law is ineffective:
 

Vierling's situation, some experts say, illustrates a basic problem with the credit-counseling provision of the bankruptcy law: It's too late by the time many consumers get counseling. They're already in dire financial straits, with debts far outweighing income, and have no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

Steve Bartlett, president of an industry association called the Financial Services Roundtable, supports the law but says it's flawed.

"Early on, most of the pre-bankruptcy counseling is not especially useful because it's only occurring for people right before they go into bankruptcy," Bartlett said. "The flaw is that the bankruptcy counseling is only occurring at the end of the process when you have little option."

United Kingdom approach to Debt

An interesting post on the Bankruptcy Reader talks about what the UK does for people in debt:

Now for how UK deals with its bankruptcy problem which is almost as bad as it is out here. In the UK, while bankruptcy is an option, indebted consumers can also seek to enter into a legally binding contract with their creditors (mostly unsecured creditors) called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). After calculating the amount that the debtor can realistically pay every month, the IVA is scheduled. Typically, an IVA constitutes a 5-year monthly repayment proposal. In a typical proposal, you would have to offer a minimum of 25% of the debt outstanding to be repaid over a 5-year period.

Creditors prefer the IVA since they will receive some payment as opposed to bankruptcy where unsecured creditors will often receive zero or close to it. And the best part? In an IVA system, creditors are not allowed to contact the debtor at throughout the duration of the IVA and the fact that in most cases an large element of the debt will be 'written off' in 5 years time leaving the individual completely debt free.

How this is different from Chapter 13 (particularly under the new bankruptcy law), is not clear.

Exclusionary Rule threatened?

Here is a good analysis of this week's exclusionary rule holding from the Supreme Court which said:

if police have a warrant to search a home, and they enter in a way that violates their constitutional duty to knock first and announce themselves, the evidence turned up in the search can be used in a criminal prosecution

So it's no longer "knock and announce." The knocking part may be optional, depending on circumstances.

Read the whole thing.

Foreclosures are rising

Mortgage defaults (foreclosures) are up 38% nationally.

Why?

Layoffs due to corporate downsizings, health-care issues, increasing debt levels and rising interest rates all are factors. In addition, a growing number of homeowners are relying on adjustable-rate mortgages, catching some people by surprise when their monthly payment rises.

Significantly, some of those ARMs were offered with an initial three-year to five-year period in which the rate was fixed. At the end of that period the mortgages will be reset at prevailing rates, potentially upending borrowers as interest rates have been rising. For many such people that moment is approaching.

We've heard that about foreclosures before.

An excellent roundup here.