Description

Whenever you purchase goods or services in a personal, household, or family capacity, you are entitled to the rights and remedies of state and federal consumer law. Realistically, only a very small percentage of consumer problems can be addressed by hiring a private attorney. Everyday Law for Consumers teaches practical self-help remedies that ordinary Americans can use to protect their consumer rights. Michael L. Rustad, a nationally known practicing attorney and legal scholar, translates into plain English the legalese that forms the basis for many common transactions, including consumer loans, credit repair, credit, consumer leases, usury, interest rates, Internet transactions, identity theft, distance contracts, home shopping, television advertisements, door-to-door sales, and telephone solicitations. Using real-life examples, sample complaint letters, and an appendix of further examples, this easy-to-read book empowers everyday people to become effective self-advocates in an increasingly consumer-driven society.

• Analyzes the full range of complex consumer issues in understandable language and with accessible examples
• Focuses on preventive law tactics as opposed to abstract principles of law.
• Explains how to enter into and enforce contracts
• Has the most complete and user-friendly chapter on what to do before you go to small claims court
• Shows how to write a persuasive letter of complaint to redress consumer problems
• Tells how to hire and use a lawyer in high stakes consumer cases
• Gives practical steps for filing complaints before state and federal consumer actions.
• Teaches how to determine whether to bring a consumer claim.
• Gives practical steps to guard against identity theft and how to mitigate damages should it occur.
• The author has testified before both houses of Congress and has been interviewed by NBC’s Dateline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

Author Info

Michael L. Rustad is Thomas F. Lambert Jr. Professor of Law and Codirector of the Intellectual Property Law Concentration at Suffolk University Law School. His numerous law review articles and book chapters have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and many state supreme courts, federal, district, and appellate courts. He has testified before both houses of Congress and has been interviewed by NBC’s Dateline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other national publications. He is coeditor of a tort law casebook published by LEXIS/NEXIS.

Reviews

“This is a book that you can put down on your shelf to be used whenever you feel abused by sellers and manufacturers of services and products you have bought. Everyday Law for Consumers is your toolkit for prevention, redemption, and occasionally retribution when your dollars, your credit, your health and safety and peace of mind are at stake. You’ll save more per hour of digesting and deploying the advice in Everyday Law for Consumers than you’re likely to make per hour as an executive of the vendors who rip you off. Not their CEO, just a regular executive. Because your savings tend to repeat themselves, as with insurance, year after year.”
—Ralph Nader

“Everyday Law for Consumers is an engaging and informative book that encourages ordinary people to defend their rights as consumers in a marketplace increasingly driven by corporate interests. Everyone should read this superb book.”
—Joanne Doroshow, President and Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Democracy and Cofounder of Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR).