National, State, Local Articles

Legal » National, State, Local | By Amit Mehta @ Thursday, 25th October 2007 @ 12:25 AM

For the past five years, lawsuits against ERISA violators have been given wide coverage by the press. Some of these alleged big violators are... - AIG - AON - Enron - Marsh & McLennan Companies - Merck & Co. Inc. ERISA allows beneficiaries or participants to recover benefits if the company that employs a participant is plagued by corporate fraud. When corporate execs commit fraud, company stock values take a nosedive. An employee counting on receiving benefits an... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Amit Mehta @ Tuesday, 23rd October 2007 @ 7:02 PM

Dolly the Sheep became an instant celebrity in 1996 when UK scientists (quite literally) created the world's first clone of a mammal using an adult cell. As controversial as Dolly's creation was her early death in 2003. The international press was abuzz: Does cloning violate scientific ethics? Is it right to produce a genetic copy that is evidently inferior till you hit the right one? Dolly's stuffed remains may have been relegated to the Royal Museum at Edinburgh, b... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Amit Mehta @ Thursday, 18th October 2007 @ 12:54 AM

Animal abuse or animal cruelty refers to ill treatment or substandard care that result in needless harm, distress, or suffering. Standards of animal abuse laws, implementation, and tolerance vary across the US. So conditions that constitute abuse are decided on a case-to-case basis. For example, at least five issues have caused divided opinions among the American public. 1. Fur Farming 2. Factory Farming 3. Animal testing of cosmetic products 4. Medical research using anim... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Amit Mehta @ Tuesday, 16th October 2007 @ 12:53 AM

Criminal negligence indicates the lowest level of responsibility or guilt, criminal intention being the highest. Gross negligence and criminal recklessness share the same intermediate level. What pushes an act over the line from criminal to gross negligence is the fact that the offender COULD foresee the prohibited or criminal consequences of his actions. Criminal recklessness, on the other hand, indicates the offender knew that he was exposing another person or entity to potential... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Amit Mehta @ Friday, 12th October 2007 @ 3:49 AM

According to US federal law, bank fraud is knowingly committing or trying to commit some deceitful scheme to... 1. Defraud a financial institution; or 2. Obtain funds, assets, credits, etc., under the control or custody of a bank or financial institution through fraud, misrepresentation, or false promises. The maximum penalty for bank fraud is $1 million. The maximum punishment is 30 years. The court may mete out one or the other or both. Not Necessarily a Bank ... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By VARADHARAJA PERUMAL @ Thursday, 11th October 2007 @ 6:49 PM

While the phrase what is old is new again is a thoroughly worn out clich, it has become a clich because it is oft repeated and it is oft repeated because there is a great deal of truth and reality found within the words that comprise the phrase. In the case of bankruptcy, this is an old problem that has come back to the forefront of the public consciousness thanks in part to the current mortgage foreclosure crisis that is facing segments of the nation. Well, perhaps ... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Charles Stubbs @ Wednesday, 29th August 2007 @ 1:39 PM

If you're like most people, you probably don't really recognize the difference between an arbitration and a court hearing. What is Arbitration? Arbitration is defined as "the process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group appointed by mutual consent or statutory provision." So in regards to lemon law, an arbitration is when you, the car buyer, attempt to receive a refund or replacement veh... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Charles Stubbs @ Wednesday, 29th August 2007 @ 12:53 AM

If you think your car might be a "lemon," start by doing a quick checklist of the problems. So, if your car makes odd noises, but otherwise drives just fine, you might not have a car that falls under your state's Lemon Law. But, if you are having major problems, like with the engine, drive axle, brakes, steering or radiator, you might want to start a paper trail. You could have a lemon. With any issues you might be having, check your car service contract first. Give t... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Charles Stubbs @ Monday, 27th August 2007 @ 3:18 AM

While you love your new convertible, you can't live with it any longer. You've been to the dealer with car guarantee problems over and over again. The time may have come to give up on using the warranty to solve your dilemma. It's time to look into your state's lemon law. First, it was the guarantee on the stereo system. Next, the windshield wiper motor died on a rainy day. Then the power windows began controlling themselves. Each time, the dealer said that one of the ... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Charles Stubbs @ Sunday, 26th August 2007 @ 1:10 AM

Thank heavens for the lemon law. Here's why. You'd been over and seen Pam's new truck and it was just gorgeous. She'd called you the night before and told you all about the car warranty coverage, the extended warranty and how she was going to buy it there and then. Sure, the steering pulled to the right, but she was sure that was just because she wasn't used to it. Yeah, you guessed it. Next thing you know, Pam was in the hospital. She was driving down the ... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Charles Stubbs @ Sunday, 19th August 2007 @ 12:02 AM

The automobile lemon laws were designed to protect car buyers from irreparable manufacturers' defects in automobiles that should be ordinarily be covered under warranty. So How Did The Lemon Laws Come About? Consumer demand for lemon law protection started to swell from around 1972, when more than one million people were found to have paid for vehicles that had problems that dealers could not, or would not, repair. Connecticut and California were the first states to adopt an a... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Pat Carpenter @ Saturday, 28th July 2007 @ 8:18 AM

While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law enacted in 1996, is primarily designed to allow Americans, including those in Texas cities of Dallas, Austin and Houston, the right to take health insurance coverage with them, some provisions of the law that protect the confidentiality of information are causing confusion. Observers are seeing evidence of the issue arise in cases where relatives are being denied access to medical charts, the health care provider... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Jim Corkern @ Monday, 2nd July 2007 @ 6:18 PM

If you move into an apartment or a home and you sign a lease, some people might think that they are stuck with that lease even if they discover that the property has a substantial mold problem. This is not true. No matter who you are renting from or what kind of property, it is the landlords responsibility to provide you with a healthy place to live. If you or your children become sick due to the mold located in the home, apartment, or business you are leasing, your landlord can be held... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Andrew Stratton @ Wednesday, 20th June 2007 @ 9:43 PM

When people think of Estate Planning, they generally think of legal wills. Estate planning is not just a will, although it does involve writing one. Rather, it's a series of legal steps that involves allowing your beneficiaries to avoid probate and minimize the taxes incurred, and for you to write a living will in which you nominate trusted associates who would assume power of attorney and executor status should you be incapacitated or die. Estate planning also allows you more direct contro... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Scott Letourneau @ Thursday, 14th June 2007 @ 11:34 AM

When it comes to protecting your hard earned assets you want every advantage possible. When incorporating in Nevada it is often promised that there is a level of privacy for the owners of a corporation or LLC that will help them in case of a lawsuit. Some individuals looking to form a Nevada corporation or LLC are hoping that if they get sued no one will find out who the owner of the corporation or LLC may be. Thus, preventing them from being a the target of frivolous lawsuits. In the contex... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Richard Reichmann @ Tuesday, 12th June 2007 @ 1:11 AM

The Fair Housing Act of 1968, as amended, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, nationality, familial status, age, and gender. Many state and local laws also forbid discrimination on the basis of sexuality or source of income, and the Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal to discriminate against the disabled. If you harbor any such prejudices and would allow them to come into play when renting a housing unit, then you're probably not cut ... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Andrew Stratton @ Monday, 4th June 2007 @ 3:13 PM

A living will is also known as an advance directive, and it is a written document indicating a person's wishes in the event that they are reduced to a vegetative state by some accident or trauma, and whether doctors treating them should go to all efforts necessary to keep them legally living, or to "allow nature to take its course". Unlike a legal will, courts have not generally recognized the significance of living wills, and the existence of one would not necessarily be leg... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Andrew Stratton @ Monday, 4th June 2007 @ 3:12 PM

Probate law primarily concerns the execution, interpretation, and contest of legal wills and estates. A probate court may be known by various names depending on where it is, however, probate law always concerns how a deceased person's estate is handled by his executor or heirs. The word probate describes the process through which a person's final wishes are carried out with regard to who should administer the process, how assets will be sold and divided, and what will happen to any exi... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By James Montgomery @ Wednesday, 9th May 2007 @ 5:07 PM

"It's not how much you make that counts," my father told me many years ago, "but how much you keep of what you make." I did not really understand that old adage at the time, but he was passing on some wisdom that his father had given him. It's just common sense, but it is amazing how blind most of us, including me, are to the significance of that sentence. Let's look at an example involving real estate. Lets say you own a commercial building that will... more...

Legal » National, State, Local | By Ron Wicker @ Saturday, 5th May 2007 @ 10:13 PM

Asbestos has been proven to cause a number of health conditions, including a disease called mesothelioma. While companies that make products using asbestos have known about the negative health effects of their products for as long as 60 years, many of those who worked in their factories were in the dark. Mesothelioma lawsuits mean big payouts, with lawyers receiving almost half of the final settlement. Suits settled out of court can bring an average of $1 million, and those that go to... more...