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Three days ago I got a phone call from a gentleman whose three-year-old minivan had been totaled in a crash, not his fault. Because he had financed the vehicle over six years, he still owes over $12,000 on the vehicle, yet has been told that he will only get $9000 for replacement cost because that is all the vehicle is worth.As more and more cars get more and more expensive, and the loans go out longer and longer, this is going to be a very common situation if the crash is severe enough

Following up to yesterday's blog on unfair arbitration clauses, in today's Star Tribune there was an article about a Senate bill introduced by Sen. Franken, cosponsored by 15 other senators, designed to put an end to these stealth arbitration provisions. In the article the senator noted that these clauses are one-sided and effectively eliminate a person's right to sue.

Just last week the New York Times published a very well researched article on the subject of forced arbitration clauses being inserted into contracts by corporate America for the purpose of eliminating a consumer's right to sue. These forced arbitration clauses are in virtually every contract that everyone has to sign to get things like cell phones, credit cards, or a bank account. Naturally the worst offenders are the brokerage houses, credit card companies, and banks too big to fail.

Just last week the Minnesota Star Tribune ran a series of articles concerning the dangers of the family farm. "Farming remains one of the most dangerous occupations in America, with fatality rates above other high risk industries such as mining and construction. Altogether, nearly 5000 people have died in farm accidents since 2003." Farming remains one of the nation's most dangerous occupations, generating an average of more than 400 work-related deaths each year.

About two weeks ago I filed the final brief in a case now pending in front of the Minnesota Court of Appeals entitled Nichols v. Cimbura. In that case the defendant had T-boned Mr. Nichols' almost new vehicle at relatively high speeds, causing a little over $11,000 worth of damage.

In today's Minneapolis Star Tribune there was an article reporting that since this past Saturday four more motorcyclists have died in crashes on Minnesota roads, which increases the fatality total so far this year to 24, which is a 50% increase over this same time a year ago. That's 24 people dead in probably the last 2 1/2 months!

The most commonly used smoke detector in homes utilizes ionization technology to sense the presence of a fire in the home. This type of smoke detector represents about 95% of the smoke detector market. The reason that should concern you is because this type of smoke detector is very poor at actually detecting smoke, which it turns out is the most common killer in house fires.

In this past Monday's Star Tribune was an article reprinted from the Los Angeles Times. It discussed an analysis of the automobile industry by the giant investment bank, Morgan Stanley. The author of the study concluded that the automobile industry as we know it will not be recognizable in the not-too-distant future. The 2 factors that are going to cause this disruption are the sharing economy and autonomous driving.

In this month's issue of the Costco magazine is an article about the dangers of driving while fatigued.  After 20 hours without sleep the average person performs as someone with a blood-alcohol level of .08 would. There were some other statistics that bear repeating here: 1. Sleeping less than five hours a night increases the risk of drowsy driving accidents by four times.

In Monday's Star Tribune was a tragic report of a death in Renville County of a 53-year-old farmer who was crushed by the tractor tire he was trying to change. For every 100,000 farm workers, about 25 are killed each year and 243 are injured. 5% of those injuries result in some sort of permanent disability. The National Safety Council also reports that of the approximately 3.1 million people who work on America's 2.3 million farms and ranches, 1300 die each year and 120,000 are injured.