Many patrons come to the law library and Civil Self-Help Center because they have been sued by a credit card company. A sizable percentage of these people tell us that there must be some mistake—they hired a company to settle all their debts for them, so how can they be sued? Unfortunately, “debt settlement companies” frequently promise far more than they can deliver. These companies actually have no power to prevent lawsuits. They offer to negotiate settlements for consumers, often charging a hefty fee for the service, but they cannot force a creditor to accept their offer. The consumers often end up worse off than they would have been without the debt settlement company’s “help.” Risky

Did you know that 57 percent of California voters want a third party alternative?  While the idea may seem pie-in-the-sky, it's not.  Just like the dot-com and housing bubbles that suddenly popped without warning, it can be difficult to grasp where we are at our current point in history. I'm here to tell you that there's a revolution coming, but it's not going to be of the Arab Spring sort.  Instead, it's going to come from people like you who decide that even though they have a viewpoint, collaboration is better than competition.  Our political system - whether in Congress or the State Capitol - has simply lost the capacity to solve problems.  And it's no coincidence that it seems like t

When the City Council approved $7.4 million for design work to upgrade the city’s two water treatment plants on Thursday night, it inched forward on a long-term and costly project to overhaul the plants. Remodeling the city’s aging water treatment plants will take years of work, may cost about $150 million and could involve significant utilities fee hikes for property owners and businesses in Sacramento, according to an April 21 report by city staff. But the City Council and city staff agree that the treatment plants are so old that the remodel of the plants will be necessary. One of the city’s plants, located on the Sacramento River, was built in the 1920s. The other plant was built in

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) introduced a bill Monday that would require professional sports teams to pay off all debt involving taxpayer dollars to the municipality in which they are located before signing an agreement to move to another California city or county. bar one California city from issuing bonds to lure a professional sports team from another city in which existing bonds had not been paid. It would effectively require that the Sacramento Kings repay the city $77 million before the bonds approved by the Anaheim City Council could be issued. “It’s all about public dollars involved not just in the situation currently pending with regards to the (Sac

Sacramento officials anticipate that if the Kings move, the $77 million in bonds issued by the city will be paid off, but City Councilman Kevin McCarty said he is concerned about when. He said they could do one of three things: “They could move and pay back their loan, or they could move and make minimum payments for the next 15 years, or, No. 3, they could move and default” He added that he is pushing for a single lump sum payoff if the Kings do move. He said his reading of the 1997 contract for the loan with former Kings owner Jim Thomas is that the loan must be paid in full if the Kings move, but he has his doubts. “How are they going to pay off the city’s (loan) if they don’t have t

The city of Sacramento fired off another round of letters Wednesday in an attempt to stop the Sacramento Kings from moving or at least get assurances in writing that they'll repay a $77 million loan from the city. A day after the Anaheim City Council approved issuing $75 million in lease revenue bonds to entice the team to relocate, Sacramento officials sent a letter to the Kings requesting the team's owners promise in writing to repay Sacramento. Assistant City Manager John Dangberg also sent a letter to National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern and the NBA Board of Governors. Dangberg wrote that the city is asking the board to make its approval of the team's relocation c

Q. I co-signed my sister’s car loan. She made payments for the first two years, but now she is unemployed and I’m worried she might not be able to make the payments. What rights do I have? If I have to make the payments, do I at least get the car? Janice A. It sounds like you are well aware that if your sister doesn’t make the payments, you will have to. Sometimes people co-sign a loan as a favor, without really understanding just how big a favor it really is – the co-signer isn’t just vouching for the borrower, or offering to pay half the debt, but is actually accepting responsibility for paying the whole debt if needed. Once the borrower misses a payment, the creditor can go after the

City Treasurer Russ Fehr sounded an alert about the city’s cash situation Thursday, writing in a report that the cash flow is out of whack and the city needs to stop using unsustainable fixes to balance its budget. Fehr expects that the city will need to borrow cash in Fiscal Year 2011 – 2012. “The general fund now has to borrow for cash flow needs,” Fehr wrote in his report. The city will have to pay interest costs on the amounts it borrows, he said in an interview just after the report was posted. At this point, he said he does not know how much the city will borrow in the next fiscal year. However, his report noted that the city has been experiencing cash flow troubles since Fiscal Y

The City Council on Tuesday revisited the city’s 2003 loan agreements with the Sacramento Kings and decided to keep them in effect. City Treasurer Russ Fehr said he discovered the possible issue with the old loan agreement a few months ago. He said he discussed the matter with City Attorney Eileen Teichert, and she suggested that the current City Council examine the contract because it didn’t go before council members in 2003. The Kings’ remaining debt to the city is $68 million, according to Fehr. In 1997, the Kings and the city signed a contract that permitted the Kings to pay back its loans to the city after reimbursing $30 million in debt to another party, Fehr said. Then, in 2003,

Q: I didn’t pay my student loans. My $20,000 in student loans is now up to $90,000. I am on unemployment. What is going to happen? A: This is a tough situation for people. You go to school and borrow money with the expectation that you will be able to pay it back when you get a job. And when the economy goes south, many people lose the ability to pay their student loans. So, what do you do? Unlike credit cards or personal loans, student loans generally are not dischargable in bankruptcy. That means you cannot get rid of the debt solely by filing for bankruptcy and moving on with life. You are going to have to pay them back. Your first shot should be a deferment. If you are not working,

When you take a job, how much does your salary factor into the reason you accept?   While watching the morning news on New Year's Eve, my eyes widened to see the letters "IOU" go across the screen. According to the State Controller, John Chiang, legislators may soon be seeing IOUs instead of paychecks. This could happen as early as Feb. 1 due to the state's budget problems. If you were to begin receiving IOUs from your employer, how would you feel? Would you continue to work? Do you think this is a fair way for the state to allocate its money and alleviate further debt? Do you think that legislators are doing a service for the state and therefore should be the first ones impacted by t