You and your hard-earned money deserve respect, attention, and the best legal help! As a Texan, you’re entitled to many rights under the law, and your Texas Legal membership can make sure you know what your rights are and what actions you can take. Here are a number of issues that your Texas Legal plan covers under the area of consumer law.
Common types of civil cases include:
- Breach of Contract: If a person breaks a legal contract, such as not completing a job, not paying on time, or not delivering goods, the other party can bring a case against them. The contract can be in writing or a verbal agreement.
- Property Dispute: asking the court to settle a dispute over property between two parties
- Tort: A tort is a wrongful act that causes damage to a person or their property. A tort case asks the court to decide if the victim of the wrongful act should be compensated. A common type of tort is a personal injury lawsuit.
- Equitable claim: an equitable claim case happens when one party is asking the court to order a party to take some action or stop some action, such as a restraining order or an injunction.
- Door to Door Sales – door to door sales require written notice of a three day cooling off period, during which you can cancel the purchase without penalty.
- Mail – a mail order company must send your order within 30 days unless you were informed when you placed the order that the item back order, out of stock or out of season. You have a right to cancel your order.
- Telemarketing – the National Do Not Call Registry prevents telemarketers from contacting you if you are registered; register at (www.donotcall.gov) or by a toll-free number (888-382-1222.)
- Pets – some states have specific protection for consumers buying pets such as the requirement of health history disclosure or lemon laws; if your state doesn’t have such specific laws, you can recover under a legal theory of general warranty.
- Funeral Homes – the federal Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to give pricing information over the phone; funeral homes must disclose what expenses are legally required and which are optional.
- Travel – if you pay for a hotel room ahead of time, it must be available to you; otherwise, reservations are a courtesy. Shocking to most people, prepaid tickets are not a guarantee for a seat on a particular flight. The ticket is simply a contract for the airline to get you from one place to another. If you get bumped, the airline is required by law to provide a written explanation of your rights such as financial compensation or overnight accommodations.
- Home Repairs – Read the written paperwork that a home repairman provides; it will outline your rights to rescind a contract within a 3 day cooling off period. It’s in your best interest to hire a home repairman from a referral and not the yellow pages.
A Texas Legal membership can help you take the first step in a DTPA claim, which is having an attorney write a letter on your behalf, detailing your complaint and asking them to take certain actions, such as completing a service or providing a refund. Often, a letter like this can be enough to fix the issue.
If the party fails to respond to an attorney’s letter, it’s time to file suit under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act. Texas Legal plans cover consumer law cases and allow you to pursue these claims without extensive legal fees. Not only can you get whatever is wrong put right, you can also be awarded damages.
Other warranties and promises that might not fall under DTPA are often still covered by your Texas Legal plan, and you can get an attorney’s help to correct the situation and get what you are owed.
For instance, Sandra and Karen agreed that Karen would pay Sandra $100 to bake 10 dozen cookies for an event. This creates a contract.
Contracts can be oral, however, it is in the best interest of both parties to have a contract in writing because it’s much easier to enforce.
Breach of Contract
A breach of contract occurs when any of the parties to a contract fails to perform as agreed. In the example above, if Sandra bakes the cookies and Karen refuses to pay her the $100, Karen is in breach of contract.
If you entered into a contract, whether a formal written contract or verbal agreement, and the other party failed to hold up their end of the contract, you may be able to sue for damages or to get them to fulfill their obligations. In Texas, breach of contract cases have a statute of limitations of four years.
Breach of Contract Remedies
A legal remedy is a means to restore the injured party back to where he or she would have been but for the breach of contract. In keeping with our example, the court would make Karen pay Sandra the $100.
Had it been Sandra who breached the contract and Karen hired someone else to bake the cookies for $150 Sandra would have to pay Karen the $50 difference.
If you’d like to find out how to sign up for your free Experian’s identity theft and monitoring coverage, contact member services at 1-800-252-9346 or email them at member@texaslegal.org.
Finding a Consumer Law Attorney
Do you need an attorney’s help with a consumer law issue? Go to our online attorney finder, select “Consumer Law” under Area of Law, and choose the specific issue you are dealing with. Then put in your location to find an attorney near you that handles these cases.