liability

Amid all the good cheer, the holiday season hides a sobering number of financial pitfalls -- and not just ones that involve overspending. Here's a look at seven dangers you might not have considered, along with steps you can take to make sure your holidays are more happy than hazardous.

Everyone realizes that homeowners need insurance policies, but many renters overlook the fact that they need coverage too. The average tenant has a lot to lose if they fall victim to a fire, flood or other disaster, which means they have a lot to gain from buying a low-cost renters policy.

The Federal Reserve is finally admitting that not all the big banks are healthy: Bank of America won't get to pay increased dividends. But none of those financial giants should be allowed to, and a logical look at the reasons they say they want to dole out the cash makes it totally clear why.

Those "standard" agreements big businesses like to impose on small clients are one-sided deals intended to protect their interests while reducing or eliminating your legal rights altogether. Before you sign on the dotted line, consider this cautionary example.

On Wednesday, a Minneapolis jury ordered Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals to pay an 87-year-old man $1.7 million because its antibiotic Levaquin damaged his Achilles tendons. It was the first verdict from about 2,600 similar lawsuits filed so far.

Kenneth Feinberg, who was jointly selected to be the new oil spill claims czar by the White House and BP, spent his first official day on the job Monday taking heat over the guidelines he has established for claims against the fund BP set up for victims of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

About once every two weeks a worker at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston gets flagged by a team of about a dozen monitors for violating the hospital's strict policy on social media. The policy prohibits employees from doing such things as griping about having to go to work on their Facebook...

Accused Gulf oil spill villain Transocean recently invoked an 1851 law to try to limit its liability in the disaster. A U.S. District Court has ruled that the statute's damage cap doesn't apply, but the settlement of personal injury and wrongful death claims will be slowed down by the maneuver.

The federal report on the Gulf oil spill is due out this week, and industry awaits it with concern: A prolonged ban on offshore drilling and expensive new safety standards could take a serious economic toll.

To buy or not to buy earthquake insurance. Two weeks after Haiti's devastating temblor, that question is on the front burner again. Whether you live in St. Louis or San Francisco, it's hard to ignore that gnawing feeling in your gut that not having the insurance could mean big problems in the...