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• Like a Good Neighbor?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 22, 2007 10:17 PM | 1 CommentScottsdale, AZ

  Randy Udelman reports on the record profits from State Farm Insurance, noting:In the midst of its record-setting year, according to a recent story on CNN, State Farm apparently adopted a policy to minimize settlement offers for low-impact motor vehicle collisions forcing accident victims to take substantially low settlement offers or spent significant costs in litigation. Moreover, Katrina...

• Intoxicated Scottsdale Man Smashes Three Patrol Cars

  Chrissie Cole | August 27, 2009 3:16 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  A rowdy scene at Jade Palace restaurant in Scottsdale ended with one arrest and five wrecked cars on Wednesday night. According to Scottsdale police, officers arrived at the restaurant and found...

• Driver Arrested For Manslaughter In Fatal Crash

  Chrissie Cole | February 17, 2009 10:46 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  The driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal car accident on February, 8 in Scottsdale has been charged with manslaughter. The woman, 25, of Phoenix, was arrested last week after being treated...

• Mandatory Closing Provisions Strictly Enforced in Real Estate Purchase Contracts

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 11, 2008 12:41 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  That hissing sound you hear is not just air coming out of the real estate bubble, it's the folks at Mining Investment Group, LLC ("MIG") who today learned the importance of a mandatory closing date where a contract specifies that "time is of the essence." The case, Mining Investment Group, LLC v. Roberts, shows just how strictly the courts will interpret real estate purchase contracts - indeed,...

• No Personal Jurisdiction Over Across-the-Border Bar That Overserves Patron Killing Arizona Pedestrian

  Geoff Trachtenberg | February 29, 2008 12:34 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Interesting and disappointing personal jurisdiction memo opinion from Division One, Womack v. KC Arena. In short, KC operates a bar on the Nevada side of the Arizona-Nevada border, over served a patron who then drove across the state line and killed an Arizona pedestrian. Moreover, plaintiffs asserted that KC employees knew the patron lived in Bullhead City and that he would return there after...

• Arizona Supreme Court Holds Professional Negligence Against Insurance Agent is Assignable

  Geoff Trachtenberg | February 06, 2008 9:16 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Surprising result in Webb v. Gittlen, a new opinion from the Arizona Supreme Court which holds that a professional negligence claim against an insurance agent is assignable. Although a long overdue holding, it highlights the badly misunderstood law concerning assignments, including the scope and justification of anti-assignment law (see my earlier article on Assignments vs. Liens in the...

• Arizona Supreme Court Finds No Workers' Compensation Offset for Underinsured Motorist Coverage

  Geoff Trachtenberg | January 10, 2008 4:04 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Today the Arizona Supreme Court issued an opinion in Cundiff v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. which dealt with workers' compensation offsets in underinsured motorist (UIM) claims.Pima County Deputy Sheriff Jean Cundiff was injured by a third-party while on the job, in her patrol car. Although she was paid certain workers' compensation benefits, the third-party only carried $15,000 in...

• Peak Oil: A Crude Awakening

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 30, 2007 3:39 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Ask most people, and they'll probably tell you global warming is our greatest global obstacle. Some will even say something like terrorism or illegal immigration. Frankly, I thought I was pretty damn clever spotting the global credit bubble, and believed it to be the greatest global crisis we'd face in our lifetimes (i.e., something on order of five times larger than the S&L crisis). Even if...

• Business Owners Now Owe Nondelegable Duties to Keep Premises Reasonably Safe

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 26, 2007 1:18 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  "Attention Safeway shoppers, business owners now owe nondelegable duties to their invitees to keep their premises reasonably safe."Steven H. Simon sued Safeway after he was injured during a store altercation with a security guard who "physically and sexually" assaulted him. The guard was employed by a third-party company who had contracted with Safeway. He mistakenly concluded that Mr. Simon...

• Mortgage Rate Freeze: A Flim-Flam Scheme to Recharacterize Billions of Fraudulent Mortgages and Trick Investors

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 09, 2007 11:56 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Imagine a loan of $100,000 based upon (1) a borrower's true income / ability to repay and (2) the true value of the real estate collateral. Now imagine a loan of $100,000 based upon (1) fictional income figures and (2) fictional valuation of real estate collateral. Which type of loan do you think predominated in the United States for the last five to ten years?Now imagine these "liar loans"...