The Illinois Personal Injury Weblog of Schaeffer & Lamere P.C.

Payday and Car Title Loans: Look Out!

The Belleville New-Democrat has an important article today about payday and car title loans, centering around a man who took out a $200 loan to help cover some medical expenses then ended up owing $2,000 on the loan.

In "Cycle of debt: Payday and car title loans," Mike Fitzgerald writes:

The SBC Yellow Pages book for Belleville lists 31 payday or car title loan lenders in southwestern Illinois and St. Louis.

St. Clair County Circuit Court files bulge with more than 500 lawsuits filed against people who have defaulted on their loans in the past three years.

Illinois' rules on payday and car title loans contain huge loopholes, according to a survey by Consumer Federation of America, and only Wisconsin and New Mexico are more loosely regulated.

"Here in Illinois, they have a real opportunity to take financial advantage of people," said Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general and an advocate for tighter regulations governing short-term borrowers.

"They essentially trap them with revolving loans, and they can never get out of debt." Nationwide, the short-term loan industry has prospered mightily since the late 1990s, despite excessive interest rates that have led critics to call it "legalized loan sharking."

For more, read the entire article.

Phishing for Your Dollars

From the Kansas City Business Journal: "Nixon warns Missourians of Citibank 'phishing' scam."

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon warned consumers Friday about a e-mail scam called "phishing" that uses the Citibank name to try to get information from consumers.

Nixon said a Missouri consumer received an e-mail that appeared to be from Citibank that directed the consumer to a Web site that asked for information such as the consumer's ATM card and personal identification numbers.

Phishing is sending e-mail that's been forged to look like a legitimate e-mail from a company, designed to get recipients to divulge personal information.

Nixon said Citibank's Web site says it will never send e-mails asking for passwords, credit card numbers or other sensitive information.

What Kind of Cases Does S&L Handle?

Schaeffer & Lamere handles these types of cases: personal injury, workers' compensation, and bankruptcy. We also handle the occasional traffic case, particularly DUIs and DWIs. We are also interested in hearing about any of your problems as a consumer; large companies can often be very difficult to deal with. If you have a problem, please give us a call.

Our office is near Alton, Illinois in Godfrey. We are also within easy driving distance of St. Louis, Missouri; East Alton, Illinois; Brighton, Illinois; Wood River, Illinois; Carlinville, Illinois; Carrellton, Illinois; Grafton, Illinois; Edwardsville, Illinois; and Jerseyville, Illinois.

To contact us, see the contact information on the Schaeffer & Lamere website.

Toy Safety

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the group Kids in Danger has raised questions about the safety of children's toys. In "Critics: Panel too lax on kids items," Gary Wisby writes:

Recalls of defective and dangerous children's products are down, but that doesn't mean the products are safer, a report by Kids In Danger said Monday.

The group -- founded by University of Chicago professors Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, whose toddler son died in a recalled portable crib -- and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission would order more recalls if it had stricter standards.

Since 1999, the commission's recalls of children's products have averaged half of total recalls, the KID report said. But last year, the 66 children's products recalled represented only 30 percent of the recalls.

Sorry Works

From the Alton Telegraph--"Hospital hopes honesty helps reduce legal costs," by Sanford Schmidt.

A program of encouraging hospitals and doctors to be honest when they make mistakes in order to reduce the cost of lawsuits is getting a cautious nod of approval from local hospital officials, at least in principle.

However, officials said, they already practice honesty, but their liability insurance rates have gone through the roof.

The concept, called "Sorry Works" by a newly formed group called Victims and Families United, is based on a program pioneered by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lexington, Ky.

The victims’ group introduced the idea at a rally last week. It held the rally to lend support to the beleaguered Madison County court system and the plaintiffs lawyers who practice there.

They said not all suits are frivolous, as critics seem to contend, and that they want to see quality medical care without the necessity to file lawsuits.

Think Twice Before Borrowing Against Your Tax Refund

The interest rates on tax refund loans can be astronomical. For more information, read "Tax Refund Loans Not a Good Deal," WHOTV, Des Moines.

Oops, Says Southern Commercial Bank

According to "E-mail ensnarls bank in privacy inquiry," by Cynthia Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Southern Commercial Bank is under investigation for divulging details about 40,000 customers to an outsider:

Southern Commercial Bank may have compromised the privacy of more than 40,000 customers - and may have violated state and federal guidelines - by e-mailing unsecured personal data to an independent computer programmer.

The information included bank account and Social Security numbers as well as addresses for the customers, who have demand deposits and loans. Demand deposits include checking, savings and money market accounts.

. . .

Computer programmer Rick Henderson of Kirkwood said Tom Green, vice president at Southern Commercial's South Grand Boulevard branch, sent an e-mail in October that included the information in an attachment. At the time, Henderson was a subcontractor, trying to finish work on a computer program that was to help the bank improve customer service. He had no written agreement with the bank or its contractor, Micr Automation Inc., which had hired him to do the work.

"All I needed was just a few records. I didn't need the real stuff," Henderson said. "I just about fell out of my chair when I opened it, and it was the real thing."

Henderson said he had received information on more than 40,000 of the bank's customers.

Bald Eagles in Alton

A few weeks ago, we saw a bald eagle on our way to work. It's not unusual to see a bald eagle in Alton, Illinois, this time of year, since as many as 5,000 bald eagles spend the winter along the Mississippi River.

Here's more American Bald Eagle Information, as well as information about eagle-watching around Alton.

CD Refunds On The Way

From the Chester Sun-Times: "191,000 Illinoisans Collecting on Compact Disc Antitrust Settlement"--

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced that settlement checks are ready to be mailed starting tomorrow to 3.5 million music buyers nationwide, including more than 191,000 Illinois consumers, who applied for a refund under the Compact Disc Antitrust Settlement Agreement.

Consumers who purchased a compact disc, cassette or vinyl album from a music retailer between January 1, 1995, and December 22, 2000, were eligible to file a claim for refund. Approximately 3.5 million individuals filed claims during the designated claim period of December 2002 to March 2003. All claims have been reviewed and approved for cash payments, and checks should begin to go out as soon as Friday, February 20. Claimants can expect to receive a check for $13.86 in the upcoming weeks.

Technology Grants to Venice and Brooklyn

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Technology grants to help bridge 'digital divide' in Venice, Brooklyn," by Scott Cousins--

The grants came through the Eliminate the Digital Divide program, which funds technology centers in low-income communities in order to provide training and access to computers and the Internet.

The "digital divide" refers to the gap in computer technology and computer literacy, especially among low-income populations.

The Black Butterfly Youth Foundation will receive $34,000 to provide basic computer training, Internet accessibility and other computer proficiency programs.

...

The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation will receive $37,000, which will be used to provide computer skills training at the Intel Clubhouse facility in the Orr-Weathers public housing complex.