Law on Rice

Twitter Updates for 2010-04-06

michael — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Looking around for people to follow here in Arizona, using Echofon's location search. #
So I think we found a place we like in Tucson already, but I'm waiting to see if they are cool with Eisenhower #
Nice day, but that still doesn't account for the Qdoba line… If you ask me, anyway #
I can't believe they used to send people to Arizona for allergies. #
This is my last week in Central Phoenix, so I'm prepared to give up my Starbucks mayorship. (@ Starbucks – Park Central) #
I would rate the interestingess of my tweets at about 3.75 on a 10 point scale–married office worker living in Mesa #
Well that was exciting for me… Got to go to the trustee's office. All I saw was the desk and disembodied hands signing my doc… #
Driving through the reservation after work http://flic.kr/p/7Rg6WU #

PACER just got cheaper–for casual users, anyway

michael — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:35:01 +0000

I saw this announcement on the Arizona bankruptcy court’s website:

PACER Service Center EPA Fee Schedule Update: On March 16, 2010, the Judicial Conference of the United States approved an adjustment to the Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule so that users are not billed unless they accrue charges of more than $10 of PACER usage in a quarterly billing cycle, in effect quadrupling the amount of data available without charge. Previously, users were not billed until their accounts total at least $10 in a one-year period.

That’s a classically legal way of saying, “hey, if you don’t use PACER very much, don’t worry about it.”

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Twitter Updates for 2010-04-05

michael — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Happy Easter everyone. I think Easter is Phoenix's best holiday. We're going to the Farm for brunch. #
Easter at the Farm (@ The Farm at South Mountain) http://4sq.com/6hZ6rR #
Easter at the Farm. Gorgeous day! http://flic.kr/p/7QPFoL #

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Twitter Updates for 2010-04-04

michael — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0000

My scammer, Farrah, got back to me. She's a very polite scammer. #

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It’s not just tax season, it’s bankruptcy season too

michael — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:12:44 +0000

On this interview on American Public Media’s Marketplace, Mitchell Hartman gave an interview. He said:

“[Filings] were up by more than a third just between February and March. But there’s actually two reasons why that is not quite so surprising. First off, believe it or not, spring is apparently bankruptcy season. It’s because people get refund checks, it can cost you $2,000 to $3,000 to pay for a bankruptcy lawyer, so you have the money, you look at your bills and you decide now’s the time to file.”

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Recommended: why Texas missed the foreclosure wave

michael — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 04:59:16 +0000

So, as you are painfully aware by now, easy mortgage credit, especially cash out mortgages, really fueled the real estate bubble. So, how did Texas–the land of bubbles–miss the foreclosure tsunami (over 13% of Arizona mortgages are in foreclosure)? Maybe this Washington Post article has the answer:

[In Texas] cash-outs and home-equity loans cannot total more than 80 percent of a home’s appraised value. There’s a 12-day cooling-off period after an application, during which the borrower can pull out. And when a borrower refinances a mortgage, it’s illegal to get even a dollar back. Texas really means it: All these protections, and more, are in the state constitution. The Texas restrictions on mortgage borrowing date from the first days of statehood in 1845, when the constitution banned home loans.

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House shopping in Tucson

michael — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:07:57 +0000

I’m sitting in the back of the car with Mia on our way back to Phoenix, posting from the iPhone. We were shopping for a house to rent in Tucson. I think we found one we like.

Check out the backyard in this one–a little different than Seattle!

Incidentally, it has a 63 WalkScore, “somewhat walkable,” not bad by Arizona standards!

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Interesting read: a defense of class actions

michael — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:00:07 +0000

Jeffrey I. Schindler wrote:

Plaintiffs’ lawyers and class actions have been the “whipping boy” of the tort reform movement for far too long. Indeed, the drum has been beaten so consistently during the past decade that it is now accepted as truth in many quarters that only trial lawyers (and their nefarious lobby) get anything of value from these lawsuits. What this perspective deliberately ignores is the litany of cases in which private lawyers step in when regulators abdicate their responsibilities. It also ignores how often the “little guy” who has been wronged would never have gotten his day in court without the ability to join with others who have been similarly wronged.

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Twitter Updates for 2010-04-03

michael — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0000

My little Saab is so much fun to drive. #
I never heard back from my scammer, Farrah, this morning.
And I thought we had a good thing going too… #

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Geeking out with Rule One Four

michael — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:50:30 +0000

I have an idea that I got a few weeks ago, and now I’m finally getting a few free moments to spend on it.

It’s called Rule One Four, and yes, a few weeks ago I actually thought of it in the shower. It solves an ancient problem: clients want more information from lawyers than lawyers can economically give.

So far I have the database modeled, and some screens ready to code up. Hopefully I can have it done in beta next week.

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