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Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One: Personal Injury 101...................................................................................1Chapter Two: Medical Malpractice...................................................................................11Chapter Three: Credit Bureaus, Credit Scores and the Credit Business...............................................19Chapter Four: Fifteen (15) Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure...........................................................38Chapter Five: Avoiding Identity Theft and Identity Fraud...........................................................59Chapter Six: Work-At-Home Scams and Schemes [Employment]...........................................................73Chapter Seven: From Charles Ponzi to Bernard Madoff: The "Ponzi" and Other Investment Schemes......................80Chapter Eight: The Affinity Scam...................................................................................87Chapter Nine: Four (4) Things Not To Do When You Are In Debt.......................................................91Chapter Ten: Avoiding Debt Settlement Scams........................................................................96Chapter Eleven: The "Nigerian," The "Singapore," The "Irish Lottery," and Other Internet Scams.....................101Chapter Twelve: Home Improvement Consumer Secrets and Tips.........................................................122Chapter Thirteen: Dark Secrets of Credit Cards and Debit Cards.....................................................128Chapter Fourteen: Franchising— Opportunities and Scams.......................................................139Chapter Fifteen: Contract Law for the Consumer.....................................................................148Chapter Sixteen: Secrets and Tips for Avoiding Debt Collection Harassment..........................................156Chapter Seventeen: Recognizing and Avoiding Tax Debt Settlement Scams..............................................168Chapter Eighteen: Dealing with Government Agencies.................................................................173Chapter Nineteen: Avoiding Debtors' Prison In The United States....................................................177Chapter Twenty: Concluding Thoughts................................................................................186Summary: Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets...........................................................................195

Chapter One

He sure had me worried.

In a terrible accident one night at a railroad crossing, a train smashed into a car and pushed it nearly four hundred yards down the track. Though no one was killed, the driver of the car took the train company to court since he had suffered a personal injury.

At the trial, the engineer insisted that he had given the driver ample warning by waving his lantern back and forth for nearly a minute. He even stood and convincingly demonstrated how he'd done it. The court believed his story, and the personal injury lawsuit was dismissed.

"Congratulations," the lawyer said to the engineer when it was over. "You did superbly under cross-examination."

"Thanks," he said, "but he sure had me worried."

"How's that?" the lawyer asked.

"I was afraid he was going to ask if the lantern was lit!"

By definition, "personal injury law" is that area of the law designed to protect you—your body, mind and emotions—because of somebody else's act or failure to act. It is also known as "tort law." In a successful personal injury or tort action, the person who caused the injury or harm is called upon to compensate the person who suffered the losses. Generally, there are three established theories of personal injury or tort liability: negligence, strict liability and intentional misconduct.

The most common typical kinds of personal injury claims include traffic accidents, so-called "slip and falls", tripping accidents, accidents at work, assault and battery claims, accidents in the home, product defects or so-called product liability claims, inter alia. On a broader scale, "personal injury" can also include medical malpractice, dental malpractice, orthopedic (chiropractic) malpractice, and the category of industrial disease cases which encompass asbestosis and mesothelioma, emphysema, pneumoconiosis, silicosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic obstructive airways disease, vibration white finger, occupational deafness, occupational stress, contact dermatitis, sarcodosis, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS), and repetitive strain injury ["Nolo's Free Dictionary of Law Terms and Legal Definitions", Nolo.com, September 18, 2009; Black's Law Dictionary; Barron's Law Dictionary].

My main tip for the reader in this chapter on personal injury is that too many consumers who are victims of personal injury settle their cases too soon; without full and proper medical treatment and physical rehabilitation.

Negligence occurs when a person's conduct falls below a legally recognized standard of taking reasonable care under the circumstances to protect others from harm. Persons who act negligently do not intend to cause an accident that injures another person. Instead, their liability develops from careless or thoughtless conduct or a failure to act when a reasonable person under the circumstances would have acted. Negligence is the basis for liability in the majority of personal injury lawsuits, including automobile accidents and medical malpractice.

In the area of strict liability, designers and manufacturers are held strictly liable for injuries caused by their defective products. In strict liability cases, the injured person does not have to establish negligence by the user of the product. Instead, what the injured person needs to show is that the defective product was designed or manufactured in a manner that made it unreasonably dangerous or unsafe when used as intended. Strict liability is an important and growing area of tort law. It is, in effect, "liability without fault." [see, "strict liability", Barron's Law Dictionary & Black's Law Dictionary].

Intentional Misconduct claims are intentional personal injury to someone else, and "automobile accidents" are the areas in which the majority of personal injury actions arise. Automobile accidents provide a good example of how the tort system works. For example, a person has a negligence claim in a "fault" state (such as Maryland) when he or she is injured by a driver who failed to exercise reasonable care, because drivers have a duty to exercise reasonable care any time they are on the road. When drivers breach that duty and injury results to another, personal injury law, or tort law, says the injured person can recoup his or her losses. (Remember, though, the system may be very different in states that have passed "no-fault" laws.)

Intentional Misconduct claims of personal injury or tort liability must allege and prove more than just careless actions by another person. It must be alleged and proved that the offending person intended to engage in the offending conduct that he or she engaged in. From this conduct, the law infers and concludes that the offending person intended...