Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Feb 13, 2018 |
Wyoming is considering a new law that would provide for an elected Attorney General
Currently, Wyoming is one of the few states where the Attorney General is not elected. Most states, including Colorado, elect their state Attorney General in the general election. All that may change if Senate Fi...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Dec 13, 2017 |
What is mediation?
When someone becomes involved in a civil lawsuit, they often hear their attorney start talking about mediation. Mediation arises in almost every civil case. Yet, mediation is not always understood by the parties, and can sometimes even be confused with arbitration. I hope to e...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Dec 08, 2017 |
What is arbitration?
Arbitration is becoming more and more prevalent in American society. If you are like most Americans, I bet that you are party to at least half a dozen arbitration agreements.
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Nov 21, 2017 |
After a decade and a half of legal practice, I have some interesting observations about the impact of civil litigation on the parties. From these observations, I have some recommendations to litigants on how to better handle litigation.
Dont take it personally
Approximately half of the people ...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Nov 20, 2017 |
As I reported earlier this year, the Iowa Attorney General filed a complaint against Osmosis, a Colorado-based maker of drinkable sunscreen. According to the Iowa Attorney Generals allegations, the company made claims that its water had been treated with a device that changes the electrical en...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Oct 25, 2017 |
What to do about unwanted marketing calls or robocalls?
Americans are constantly harassed by telephone marketing calls, debt collection calls and other unwanted telephone calls. These unwanted calls led to passage of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991. At the time, Senator Holl...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Sep 30, 2017 |
There is a good chance that your most sensitive data was stolen from Equifax. 143 million people had their data accessed by hackers. You can check to see if your data was accessed. The breach occurred sometime in the May to July, 2017 time frame. It seems that Equifax will not send you a written ...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Aug 14, 2017 |
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a marketing scheme that tricked consumers into spending 2,000 percent of what they thought they had agreed to pay. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that a group of
According to the FTC, the defendants used a network of 78 companies, at least 87 w...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jul 19, 2017 |
I started writing about consumer law issues on this website a year ago.
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jul 12, 2017 |
I have written about the FTC's substantiation requirements with respect to supplements. The nature of supplements lends itself to exaggerated and false claims about their effectiveness. However, the substantiation requirements apply to other types of products too as seen by the FTC's recent actio...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jun 27, 2017 |
Wyoming adopts law reining in freewheeling roof repair operations
Hail storms are a recurring summer event in Wyoming. Millions of dollars in damage is inflicted on hundreds of homes in Wyoming every year. This leads to a large number of contractors and related individuals offering roof repair s...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jun 20, 2017 |
CenturyLink's alleged lack of integrity leads to several lawsuits
CenturyLink faces two class action lawsuits related to allegations of ripping off customers just a few days after being sued by a former employee for wrongful termination for complaining to her superiors that the company forced em...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jun 06, 2017 |
The FTC obtains $280 million judgment against Dish Network for telemarketing violations
As the result of Do Not Call (DNC) litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio, a fe...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | May 17, 2017 |
What do you do when there is an error on your credit report?
An FTC study showed that five percent of Americans had errors on their credit reports that could lead to them paying more for loans. This statistic seems accurate to me as many consumers call my office asking for advice on how to remov...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Apr 27, 2017 |
The constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is being attacked in a case it brought against Ocwen.
The CFPB and several attorneys general sued Ocwen in connection with its foreclosure and loan servicing activities. The CFPB claims that Ocwen failed to comply with ter...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Apr 17, 2017 |
Colorado Attorney General fails to prove that Debt Collection Law Firm overcharged
Earlier this month, the Denver District Court ruled that the Castle Law Group, a foreclosure law firm, did not — did not systematically charge inflated and deceptive costs for routine foreclosure services, a Den...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Apr 06, 2017 |
Wyoming goes after transient pavers
It looks like the Wyoming Attorney General's Office has been busy with transient pavers. Transient pavers are small asphalt paving operations that travel from county to county during the warmer months seeking small paving jobs. They usually are seen working on...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Mar 29, 2017 |
Wyoming removes the cloak of anonymity for shell companies.
The Wyoming legislature is in session for the next few weeks. One of the pending bills aims to plug a loophole that allows people to own or control Wyoming corporations and companies anonymously. As I have wrote about in the past, as...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Mar 23, 2017 |
Top 10 Consumer Complaints in Colorado
It is that time of year again where the various state and federal consumer protection agencies review their 2016 statistics and report on consumer complaints and trends. The Colorado Attorney General reports the following top ten consumer complaints for 201...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Mar 16, 2017 |
Can you prove those claims?
A Colorado company with a controversial product has been sued by the Iowa Attorney General's Office for consumer fraud. The complaint alleges that Osmosis, LLC and Harmonized Water, LLC deceived consumers by making the assertion that their products
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Mar 08, 2017 |
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Report
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a report identifying problems with the big three consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). The CFPB found several systemic problems at the companies and it h...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Feb 15, 2017 |
HB 22 Advances without opposition in the Wyoming legislature
As I noted last month, there is a bill pending before the Wyoming legislature that would remove some of the loopholes that allow great anonymity for Wyoming company owners. The bill is advancing without opposition in the legislature an...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Feb 09, 2017 |
When a company claims that its products are "Made in the USA," the products should really be made in the USA.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently drove home this point in a case against a water filtration system distributor in Georgia. The FTC entered a settlement with the distributor ba...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jan 25, 2017 |
Timeshare company settles with the Colorado Attorney General
Last month I wrote about a case brought by the Colorado Attorney General against a Timeshare Sale Operation. I have more information about the case now. It seems that several of the defendants in the case settled with the Attorney Gene...
Posted by Clyde Hutchins | Jan 19, 2017 |
Misleading advertising can end up being costly to a business
One of the major challenges of retailers is how to increase business from consumers. Retailers advertise their services or products through various mediums, often using novel methods. Despite what method is used to drive business, reta...