Week in Review: John Cleese on Creativity, Debt Collection, File Cabinet Keys, and Some Songs
I'm going to begin posting weekly digests of things I learn and discover. Some weeks, it will be heavy on the law, other weeks, it will be podcasts, TV shows, videos, or sermons that resonated with me.
If you want to, you can sign up to receive these weekly posts in an email.
Cleese on Creativity
The best thing I saw this week was this video of John Cleese talking in the 80s about what he and scientists have learned about giving yourself the best chance at having creative thoughts. I think lawyers don't work hard enough or give themselves the permission they need to have the time and space necessary for creative work to happen. I learned a lot from this talk.
Leaving Evernote
For me, Evernote held a lot of promise for being that one spot that everything—legal research, news articles, recipes, etc.—lived. But, I was never able to figure out how to incorporate that promise into my everyday workflows.
If you, like me, are considering getting away from Evernote, you can import all of your notes into Apple's Notes app using this script from Larry Salibra. Pretty nifty. You lose your tags, but they are still searchable as text placed at the end of each note. Like I said, pretty nifty.
Here's picture of my kid being cute in his duck towel.
File Cabinet Keys
I recently got a few locking file cabinets that didn't have the keys to the locks. I disassembled the lock cores from the cabinet and was preparing to order new lock cores when I noticed a few letters and numbers etched into the front of the lock cores. I googled those letters and numbers. Turns out, you can just use that letter/number combo to buy replacement keys for filing cabinets and cubicles. I ordered mine from easykeys.com and they arrived quickly via FedEx.
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) Developments in Kentucky
I learned about a couple of good decisions from a Kentucky federal court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals on debt collection abuse and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In Harrell v. Unifund CCR Partners, the Court of Appeals followed the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals's reasoning in Stratton v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC 77- F.3d 443 (6th Cir. 2014) to hold that if a creditor charges off an account and waives its right to collect interest under the contract with its customer, a third party debt collector cannot seek prejudgment interest without also violating the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. Important stuff.
The other case I learned about was Grace v. LVNV Funding, Inc. Essentially, Judge Heyburn ruled that a medical provider's 1.5% per month "service charge" on accounts more than 90 days delinquent was, in fact, not a "service charge" but was instead interest in excess of the 8% rate allowed by law. Because the interest rate was usurious, LVNV Funding violated the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act when it demanded payment on an amount of money that was more than what was allowed by law. Rick Vance at Stites and Harbison wrote a good summary of the impact of Grace on Kentucky's businesses and their collection practices.