Miscellaneous

• Mandatory Closing Provisions Strictly Enforced in Real Estate Purchase Contracts

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 11, 2008 12:41 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  That hissing sound you hear is not just air coming out of the real estate bubble, it's the folks at Mining Investment Group, LLC ("MIG") who today learned the importance of a mandatory closing date where a contract specifies that "time is of the essence." The case, Mining Investment Group, LLC v. Roberts, shows just how strictly the courts will interpret real estate purchase contracts - indeed,...

• Arizona Supreme Court Holds Professional Negligence Against Insurance Agent is Assignable

  Geoff Trachtenberg | February 06, 2008 9:16 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Surprising result in Webb v. Gittlen, a new opinion from the Arizona Supreme Court which holds that a professional negligence claim against an insurance agent is assignable. Although a long overdue holding, it highlights the badly misunderstood law concerning assignments, including the scope and justification of anti-assignment law (see my earlier article on Assignments vs. Liens in the...

• Peak Oil: A Crude Awakening

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 30, 2007 3:39 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Ask most people, and they'll probably tell you global warming is our greatest global obstacle. Some will even say something like terrorism or illegal immigration. Frankly, I thought I was pretty damn clever spotting the global credit bubble, and believed it to be the greatest global crisis we'd face in our lifetimes (i.e., something on order of five times larger than the S&L crisis). Even if...

• Mortgage Rate Freeze: A Flim-Flam Scheme to Recharacterize Billions of Fraudulent Mortgages and Trick Investors

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 09, 2007 11:56 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Imagine a loan of $100,000 based upon (1) a borrower's true income / ability to repay and (2) the true value of the real estate collateral. Now imagine a loan of $100,000 based upon (1) fictional income figures and (2) fictional valuation of real estate collateral. Which type of loan do you think predominated in the United States for the last five to ten years?Now imagine these "liar loans"...

• Wyeth Recalls Cold Medicine Due to Dosing Cup Issue

  Jenny Albano | November 02, 2007 11:07 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Wyeth is recalling several brands of nonprescription cold medicine because they come with a dosing cup that does not mark the half-teaspoon level recommended for children aged 2 through 5 years old. According to the Wyeth spokesperson, there is nothing wrong with the product.The cold medicines being recalled are: Robitussin Cough DM, Robitussin Cough & Cold CF, Robitussin Cough & Congestion,...

• Legal Malpractice Statutes of Limitation - Tort and Contract

  Geoff Trachtenberg | October 18, 2007 7:56 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Interesting legal malpractice case from Division Two, Keonjian v. Olcott, dealing with the issue of when the statute of limitations begins to run and whether the tort or contract limitation period applies.The essence of the alleged malpractice was that the plaintiff got bad advice from her attorney concerning the deeding of some land that she co-owned with another party. The trial court had...

• Jury to Begin Deliberations in Unfair Settlement Practices Lawsuit Against Allstate

  Staff Writer | October 09, 2007 9:50 PM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  A Kentucky jury will begin deliberations Wednesday deciding whether Allstate Insurance Company violated the Kentucky Unfair Settlement Practices Act by systematically lowering valuation of minor injury claims and bullying claimants into accepting artificially low settlements. The Plaintiffs alleged that Allstate systematically undervalued claims relying upon a consultant who, according to the...

• The Number of Uninsured Continues to Rise

  Staff Writer | September 17, 2007 3:04 PM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  According to a recent article in the physician publication American Medical News, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased to forty-seven million people last year. By comparison, approximately thirty-eight million four hundred thousand Americans had no health insurance insurance in 2000. The American Medical News suggests that one of the reasons for such a large increase...

• Presidential Candidate Romney Victim of Laptop Theft

  Staff Writer | September 11, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  Those who do not learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat them. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has apparently learned some of the lessons from recent high profile laptop thefts involving government agencies such as the Veterans Administration and private business such as Stevens Hospital in Washington. Over the weekend, burglars broke into Candidate Romney's campaign...

• Major Data Breach at Monster.com Exposes 1.3 Million Personal Records

  Staff Writer | September 02, 2007 12:00 PM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  This past week, Monster.com disclosed that thieves hacked into and stole confidential information about several hundred thousand job seekers posted in 1.3 million records.According to a Fox news report,The information, which included first and last names, e-mail and home addresses and phone numbers, was then used to send "phishing" e-mails to members, apparently from Monster.com, encouraging...