Ison Law Office

How to get a copy of your TRUE free credit report

Scott Ison — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:09:04 +0000

Bankruptcy clients, both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, need to obtain a copy of their credit reports from all three of the major credit reporting companies before they file to make sure they have an accurate list of all their creditors. Under the FCRA and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, consumers can get one free copy of their credit report every year for free.

Unfortunately, companies have taken advantage of this by claiming they provide the free credit report when in reality they charge you for it. Just do a quick Google search for “Free Credit Report” and you will see all the companies who do NOT really provide you with a free copy of your credit report.

Here is the link the FTC web page that bankruptcy clients can use to read more about the annual free credit report and also how to really get their credit report for free.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

Department of Justice reminds elementary and secondary schools about the law concerning immigrant and homeless children.

Scott Ison — Sun, 22 May 2011 02:30:04 +0000

The Department of Justice had to once again put out a press release directed at elementary and secondary schools concerning ”student enrollment practices that may chill or discourage the participation, or lead to the exclusion, of students based on their or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status.” This also applies to homeless children.

Additionally, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), that a State may not deny access to a basic public education to any child residing in the State, whether present in the United States legally or otherwise. Denying “innocent children” access to a public education, the Court explained, “imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status. . . . By denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.” Plyler, 457 U.S. at 223. As Plyler makes clear, the undocumented or non-citizen status of a student (or his or her parent or guardian) is irrelevant to that student’s entitlement to an elementary and secondary public education.

You can read the full press release here at the Department of Justice web site.

Taking and printing your own passport type photos for immigration paperwork for under 20 cents

Scott Ison — Sun, 22 May 2011 02:13:34 +0000

With the large number of passport type photos you have send in with immigration documents, it can become very expensive to pay a drug store (i.e. Walgreens or CVS) 10.00 per picture. Here is a way I found to print 5 passport type photos for under 20 cents using the State Department’s own tools.

Have someone with a digital camera stand about 4 feet from you and take your picture against a white background. Make sure the person taking the photo takes the picture like one of these pictures.
Upload the picture to your computer.
Use the Department of State’s free photo tool found on their web site to size the picture perfectly.
Next, go to ePassportPhoto.com and follow the steps to create the perfectly sized 4×6 photo. After you upload your photo just select the entire photo since it was already sized at the Department of State’s web site. It will appear on step 3 that you have to pay, but you do not. There will be a link (a small one) that says “No thanks”. Click that link and then on the next page you can download the new image.
This new image will have 5 photos on it (the spot for the 6th photo has the web site’s name on it). This is a perfectly sized 4×6 image that you can upload to Walmart or Target (not Walgreens or CVS) and print as a 4×6 image and then pick it up in one hour.
You will have 5 perfectly sized passport type photos for under 20 cents.

This is an alternative method that also works very well (maybe better then the first method) but it does not utilize the image tool from the US Department of State.

Have someone with a digital camera stand about 4 feet from you and take your picture against a white background. Make sure the person taking the photo takes the picture like one of these pictures.
Upload the picture to your computer.
Go to Portraitbooth.com, upload your photo, crop it to the 1:1 US Passport Standard, then download the 4×6 print image.
This new image will have 6 photos on it. This is a perfectly sized 4×6 image that you can upload to Walmart or Target (not Walgreens or CVS) and print as a 4×6 image and then pick it up in one hour.

Court rules attorney/client privilege does not apply to work email

Scott Ison — Sun, 01 May 2011 01:59:32 +0000

In yet another case, Courts have limited an individual’s rights in private or confidential communications just because they use a work computer or work provided email account.

The California Court expresses this point in no uncertain terms:

“…e-mails sent by Holmes to her attorney regarding possible legal action against defendants did not constitute “„confidential communication between client and lawyer‟” within the meaning of Evidence Code section 952. This is so because Holmes used a computer of defendant company to send the e-mails even though (1) she had been told of the company‟s policy that its computers were to be used only for company business and that employees were prohibited from using them to send or receive personal e-mail, (2) she had been warned that the company would monitor its computers for compliance with this company policy and thus might “inspect all files and messages . . . at any time,” and (3) she had been explicitly advised that employees using company computers to create or maintain personal information or messages “have no right of privacy with respect to that information or message.”

This is one of the reasons why we encourage our clients to use our message system to communication with us. And communication with from a computer that they own and control, not their employer’s.

You can read this decision by clicking here.