Perspectives

Anyone with a large amount of debt that cannot be paid can consider bankruptcy. Since bankruptcy is a last resort proposition, it should be reserved for situations where there is no practical way to repay large debt on a repayment plan.

One good place to start would be to get credit counseling, preferably through a non-profit organization. Filing for bankruptcy requires credit counseling anyway, so it is a good idea to have someone actually crunch the numbers and determine whether bankruptcy makes sense, before you start the process. …

Statistics
There are approximately 75 million dogs in the U.S. Dogs bite about 4.5 million people each year and approximately 800,000 of them receive medical treatment for their injuries. Approximately 368,000 people end up in the ER per year due to dog bites (that’s 1,088 a day!). Dog bite hospitalizations have gone up approximately 86% since 1993. Getting bitten by a dog is the fifth most common reason a child has to visit the ER each year. 50% of all dog attacks are against children 12 years old or younger. …

Minnesota Law says: If a dog, without provocation, attacks or injures any person who is acting peaceably in any place where the person may lawfully be, the owner of the dog is liable in damages to the person so attacked or injured to the full amount of the injury sustained. The term “owner” includes any person harboring or keeping a dog but the owner of the dog shall be primarily liable. (Thus, a person other than the owner of the dog, if keeping or harboring the dog, is also held liable under the statute.)  …

On large private projects in California, there is a unique remedy that requires owners to provide a payment bond or other security. In certain circumstances, where the total contract is over $1,000,000, and in some situations over $5,000,000, the owner must provide the direct (general) contractor with security for the owner’s payment obligation under the prime contract. …

A California Senate Bill proposes a new approach for the Los Angeles Unified School District to manage projects of less than $1 million in value. The proposed legislation would waive the payment bond requirement for public work contracts with small businesses or microbusinesses on Los Angeles Unified School District projects of less than $1 million. …

In 2012, the North Carolina legislature significantly altered the laws for private mechanic’s lien and public payment bond claims.  Some of the changes went into effect on January 1, 2013, while others have an effective date of April 1, 2013. Below is a brief summary of some of the significant changes:

Effective January 1, 2013: …

Scams come in all shapes and sizes. Whether it’s by mail, over the phone, on the computer, or even face-to-face, the goal of would-be scammers is always the same: to get your money or your personal information. If your information falls into the wrong hands, it can be used to access your existing accounts and credit cards, or to open new ones. These actions can affect your credit history for years to come, and can have other long-lasting and undesirable consequences as well. …