Insurance Claim1

Today's tale is a story of greed. Once upon a time X lived a happy life - until he got a girlfriend.  Girlfriend was needy.  Very needy.  So needy, in fact, that X found that he was unable to pay basic bills.  But love does strange things to people, so X sought to get a loan from a friend Y.  Friend Y was a lawyer and knew better than to loan money to X without a contract. X signed on the dotted line and continued to satiate girlfriends needs. Months passed and when the contract between X and Y came due, X (to no one's surprise) had not the money to pay Y.  X, it seems, had another friend (Z) who (after much discussion and promises) agreed to pay Y the money X owed.  So, to recap, X and Y had a contract.  X didn't have the money to pay Y so X got Z to stand in his stead as debtor.  This is called a surety contract and Y agreed to accept Z as the surety.  In fact, Z insisted Y create a new contract indicating the above facts. Th...

As a law Librarian, I deal in problems and am a purveyor of solutions.  If you've got a problem, I know where you can go to solve it.   Small claims? I know four resources that can help you. Bankruptcy?  Pick your chapter and I've got answers. RICO, unlawful detainer, criminal, appeals (civil OR criminal), military justice, estate planning, family law, tax, federal, UCC, real property (commercial or otherwise), contracts, personal injury.  Whatever you need, answers I've got. So, the other day, a newly minted attorney came into my law library hoping I was all I was hyped up to be.  Turns out he had just accepted a rather messy case.  I mean, it was one of those cases that if he won, it would put him on the map.  If he lost, well.... So, being newly minted and not knowing the ways of the legal world, I introduced him to the world of Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) and showed him all the great things they offered like: California Civil D...

The wife's birthday is coming up and I'm thinking that maybe we head off to Las Vegas to take in a show, have a fun buffet dinner, do a little sightseeing, some nookie...  It's all good. So, I'm logging onto the website to book a room.  I find a FANTASTIC deal at a posh resort.  I click accept, accept, accept, got to the page that added all the fees annnnnnnnnnnd when I found out that with the added fees and taxes that the fantastic deal at the posh resort wasn't as fantastic as I thought.  In fact, the added fees darn near  doubled the initial price. Yeah, thanks but no thanks.  Dang but I don't know how Vegas stays in business  what with all the bait and switches going on. Imagine if something like this happened in the legal realm.  Take, for example, the lawyer who came into my library the other day.  He had been working to settle a long standing breach of contract case.   Opposing counsel had originally sent...

Years ago, I remember my mom demanding that we kids write letters to Santa.  We'd rummage through the Sears catalogs searching for toys that we'd never get.  I mean, we'd write down whole pages and never see any of it.  Got great stuff every Christmas, great memories of Christmas morning, but nothing I ever asked for. I don't know what it was with Santa but I can't remember a single thing I asked for that I ever got - until I got a credit card.  Things changed after that.  Oh, yeah - Nerf, here I come.  After a while, though, I learned that while having a credit card was all fun and games, you had to pay off the balance - eventually.  What with December being the month of debt, I can already see the line of people coming into my law library with legal problems. Take, for instance, the couple that came in just the other day.  Now that was a couple that understood the power of a credit card!  They had 23 credit cards between them for a ...

Recently, I have noticed a rash of lawsuits by corporations who issue credit cards.  Most all of these actions are pled under the common count claim of money had and received . Wait, before we get too deep into this, what is a "common count, anyway?" According to Black's Law Dictionary , COMMON COUNTS means: In a plaintiff's pleading, in an action for debt. Boilerplate language that is not founded on the circumstances of an individual case but is intended to guard against a possible variance and to enable the plaintiff to take advantage of any ground of liability that the proof may disclose.  In the action for indebtiatus assumpsit , the common count states that the defendant had failed to pay a debt as promised. The thing is that as far as COMMON COUNTS go, there are five separate COMMON COUNTS . They are: For money had and received (popular with credit card companies) For work, labor, services, and materials rendered and requested by defendant (works lik...

Have you ever wondered why Hitler had that funky little mustache?  I was wondering that today as I started shaving.  See, I was sick for a couple days and ha d n't shaved.  When that happens, the hairs on my face grow a bit long and since I'm too cheep to buy a new razor, it can really hurt when I start to shave my chinny chin chin. So, picture it, Hitler comes in from days on the front line and starts to shave.  I can imagine the pain he's feeling having to shave with a knife or an old Schick blade.  OUCH!  Then he gets to that part just under the nose annnnnnnnd says "der Teufel mit diesem Mist, Ich werde es einfach herauswachsen lassen!"  And thus was born the funky little mustache we all know and love. Of course, this got me thinking about all the painful/scary things people do (or choose not to do) in law.  Like not responding to a complaint when they get served process (i.e. notice that you are being sued).  As p...