Staying on Top of Things – Aronberg & Aronberg

motorcycle accident

We want to make you aware of a few stories that have come up in the legal news over the past few days that might affect you or be of interest to you. They have to do with motorcycle safety, the BP oil spill, and a wacky lawsuit from Michigan. Enjoy!

The first story has to do with motorcycle safety, which is an issue that doesn’t often get a lot of attention in the grand scheme of motor vehicles. Most attention in this realm is given to car accidents—and rightfully so; most accidents that happen on the road involve cars, not motorcycles. But couldn’t that be because most of the vehicles on the road are cars, and that motorcycles cause accidents relatively just as much as cars do? People go to great lengths to research the history of cars that they are buying to ensure that the car they will be driving is free from serious defects or a history of accident after accident. That approach is a smart one, but there has not been a venue for potential motorcycle purchasers to do the same.

Until now. Kelly Blue book and Cyclechex are changing the game. Cyclechex, having teamed up with KBB, has introduced a program that allows people who are thinking of buying used motorcycles to research the complete history of the motorcycle in question. Buyers want to know whether or not the motorcycle they’re about to buy has been in an accident—if it has, it could have been ill-repaired, thus rendering a future accident more likely due to mechanical defects not treated previously. We’ve all see the Carfax commercials which advertise a wonderful program for used car buyers—now used motorcycle buyers have the same advantage with the Cyclechex initiative. The complete history report will cost under $23 and will give you information that could save you thousands and thousands of dollars.

Our second story has to do with the compensation efforts following the BP oil spill that ravaged the Gulf in 2010. Well, last week, BP agreed on a settlement with more than 120,000 plaintiffs that will include the oil company shelling out nearly $8 billion. Of that money, at least $2.3 billion will be spent in an effort to help resurrect the seafood industry of the Gulf Coast that suffered tremendous losses following the historic oil spill. BP has already allocated $22 billion to cleanup efforts and compensation payments. BP still faces a major legal penalty; the oil giant could be fined as much as $17 billion if it’s found to have acted in “gross negligence” in connection with the spill.

The third story is a bit more light-hearted. Now, we all acknowledge that snack prices are priced ridiculously high at movie theaters. More often than not, moviegoers spend more on sodas and candy and popcorn than they do on the actual movie tickets. Well, one man in Michigan has had enough. He has filed a class-action lawsuit in an effort to end what he calls “price gouging” by the movie theaters. The suit applies only to Michiganders, but if it sticks, you can bet that other, similar suits will pop up around the country. Legal experts, however, say the suit has no traction. This is because business that are already subject to government regulations, including movie theaters, are generally exempt from being targeted by lawsuits claiming “price gouging.”

For questions about these stories or any other legal matter, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@build.simple.biz.

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