You can get good bargains from buying things from classified ads, or Craig’s List, or at a garage sale. Aside from scams, the biggest problem is what happens when you get that new (to you) boat, vacuum cleaner, Betamax, or automatic tomato planter, home and it quits working. What protection do you have? Legally, you […]
In a lawsuit, the way information is produced or documents received from the other party is through the discovery process under the rules of Civil Procedure. The parties in a lawsuit have to answer to a judge if they fail to obey these procedures. However, in most cases, a third party, who is not either […]
My first-grader and I have been reading “the Hobbit,” in anticipation of the movie coming out this month. While it was one of my favorite books as a kid, I had not read it in many years. Doing so, I was surprised at the amount of legal issues in the books, particularly contract law, […]
Last Sunday, the kids and I went to the Thalian Association’s production of “Miracle on 34th Street” a musical adapted from the 1947 movie starring Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn, and a very young Natalie Wood. My theater review: Wonderful entertainment, terrific cast, and catchy songs, with a kind of rare “Christmas Special” vibe that you […]
Consumer Reports took a break from comparing washing machines and SUVs and subjected some of the do-it-yourself legal products to their testing and review. Using the products of LegalZoom, Nolo, Rocket Lawyer, and Quicken’s Willmaker Plus, the testers created a will, car bill of sale, a home lease, and a promissory note using those company’s […]
English: Foreclosure signs, Mortgage crisis, (Photo credit: Wikipedia) With the downturn of the economy, and the burst of the housing bubble, large numbers of landlords find themselves unable to meet their mortgage payments and their rental property goes into foreclosure. If you a a tenant, with a valid lease on the foreclosed property, what rights […]
In North Carolina, damages for personal injury involve several different kinds of damages. First are the hard damages or “specials” as some call them. These are the damages where the amounts are usually easy to determine. As long as medical bills and lost hours at work can be shown to be caused by the negligence […]
Below is a post that my friend, Roger Canaff first posted on his excellent site where he discusses criminal law and violence against women and children. I thought it an excellent discussion of this area and he graceously gave me permission to share it here. —————————————- If an adult, even a young one, can be labeled […]
I’ve watched a lot of lawyer shows over the years. The first I remember was “The Paper Chase” which was actually about law school. After watching that I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer just from the shear amount of stress it appeared that law students have. (Of course I did eventually go […]
By now even the non-entertainment savvy amongst us has heard about reality television “star” Kim Kardashian’s made-for-television, multi-million dollar marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries, and their equally publicized break-up a mere 72 days later. Reports have circulated that Kim K. initially asked Humphries for an annulment, however his refusal to “agree” to one left […]
Protecting our financial interests is especially important in this day and age of social security and economic uncertainty. I say “our” to point out that this type of knowledge is certainly helpful to us all, myself included! And it’s never too soon or too late to get started. That said, I’d like to take this […]
Image by limonada via Flickr Businesses can be organized in several different ways. One of the newer forms of business is a Limited Liability Company or LLC. The best way to understand an LLC is to compare it to a traditional corporation. Limited Liability Company A LLC is a legal entity that exists separate and […]
The movie “The Social Network,” is about the formation of Facebook. A lot of the narrative of the movie is told in flashbacks framed by the various depositions in the lawsuits between the parties who allegedly had role in the creation of the social media site. In this scene, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook,(played […]
Image by yorgak via Flickr The “Servicemembers Civil Relief Act” (SCRA) was enacted in 2003. This law is the latest in a series of statutory protections dating back to the Civil War for active service members, including the predecessor statute the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act. The SCRA provides protection to servicemembers regarding residential […]
COVERT COMMUNICATIONS—When is it “OK” to record a conversation with my spouse or my chidren in the context of a contested divorce case? The two most frequent areas where electronic surveillance is used in litigation arise in the context of commercial espionage, and in domestic litigation. As formerly “high tech” surveillance technology is now available […]
With our increasingly interconnected world and the rise of identity theft and other similar invasions of privacy, more and more laws and regulations are being enacted to bolster traditional common law and wall off private information from the public. One such body of law is contained in The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. More […]
One insurance benefit that many automobile accident victims do not know about, and subsequently lose thousands of dollars is commonly known as “Med-Pay.” Med-Pay is a medical payment provision written into most liability insurance policies. Med-Pay coverage provides medical expense payment incurred as a result of injuries sustained by any person riding in the car […]
I’ve written before about the life of a lawsuit and how long stretches of time appear with nothing seeming to happen. As I said before, some of that is waiting on reactions from the other side and some of it is work done by the attorney that doesn’t require much from the client, especially if […]
We are getting into the crunch-time of the NFL Season, and as the games get bigger and bigger, each play, and each official's call is magnified in importance. Even the most casual fan at this point has heard of "instant replay" where the officials review and sometimes overturn a call on the field. Coach's have […]
Just recently the family and I loaded up the Family Truckster and headed north past Richmond, Washington (which some in my family refer to as "Occupied Virginia"), Philadelphia, New York, and finally to Old Lyme, Connecticut to visit for a few weeks, members of my wife's family. From the time we left my driveway to […]