Ron Sykstus's blog

Alabama has a good consumer law for any consumer to use if he or she has been wronged by a business. Alabama statute section 8-19-1 provides for the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act. This law states, as its legislative intent under section 8-19-2, that “the public health, welfare and interest require a strong and effective consumer protection program to protect the interest of both the consuming public and legitimate business person.”

Pursuant to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules, all individuals in the United States are entitled to one free credit report each year from each of the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The ONLY WAY to get your actual, true free credit reports is from www.annualcreditreport.com

Everything that relates to a credit report for a consumer in our country is governed by a
federal law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It is also referred to as the FCRA. This federal
law is found at 15 USC § 1681. Pursuant to this law, the FCRA regulates the permissible

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is found at 15 USC § 1692. It is a very powerful federal consumer statute packed into just six pages. The FDCPA was enacted by Congress on September 20, 1977 and became effective six months later. In formulating the Act, Congress articulated the purposes for the enactment of legislation as follows: “There is abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices by many debt collectors.

When a Veteran submits a claim for VA disability, there are very strict deadlines in place if the Veteran does not initially get the exact disability compensation that he or she thinks should be awarded. Once a Veteran receives a letter denying in whole or in part the Veteran’s claim, the Veteran has one year from the date of that letter, which is on the top part of the letter, to submit a Notice of Disagreement and notice of Intent to Appeal.

If a veteran receives an adverse Regional Office (RO) decision from the VA Regional Office denying his or her VA claim in whole or in part, the first initial step in the appeal process is to file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD). For any appeal, the filing of a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) is mandatory and cannot be avoided if the Veteran wants to proceed with appellate review of his claim.

If you are a veteran and you want to file a claim with the VA, this is a sample of what a claim should look like from you to the VA. You can simply put it on a regular piece of white paper and make sure it is dated and signed by you. Once you have it completed and signed, make a copy of it and then take the original and mail it by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the VA Regional Office (VARO) located in the state where you currently live.

Many of our clients are active duty military or government employees or employees that work for defense contractors. As a result, many of these prospective clients will have either secret or top secret security clearances which are required for their jobs. A common question we get asked is “how will filing for bankruptcy affect my security clearance?”

When a person’s job requires a security clearance issued by the federal government, they are required to submit a completed standard form (SF) 86 which is also known as the electronic personnel security questionnaire (EPSQ). Obviously, if no one has had any issues in their past, then completing this form is simple. The issue comes up and people get worried when they do have problems that have arisen in their past and they become concerned with how to address them on the security clearance form.