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May 23, 2019
In 1981 John Hinkley Jr. shot and almost killed President Ronald Reagan and critically wounded Press Secretary James Brady. Just a few months ago he was released from supervised psychiatric care and is a free man – having spent no time, at all, in prison. On today’s legal brief – what is the insanity defense? First, if you are insane, please read no further – I don’t want to be a co-conspirator in any of your crimes. (Bad Joke) For everyone else, the general rule in criminal law is that there must be an intent to commit the crime – […]
May 23, 2019
Tiger Woods was just sued for wrongful death by the parents of man who tragically died from driving drunk. How is that possible? The lawsuit names Tiger Woods personally, Tiger’s restaurant “The Woods” where the man had been drinking and Tiger’s girlfriend, Erica Herman, who was also the manager of the restaurant. The allegations in the lawsuit are that the restaurant “over-served a young man alcohol who they knew was suffering from the disease of alcoholism” and then sent him out to his car to drive home. Even though Tiger and his girlfriend weren’t even at the restaurant when this […]
May 1, 2019
What can you legally take from your hotel room? The answer might surprise you. In law school we learn that Theft is the physical removal of an item from the possession of another, without their consent, with the intention to permanently deprive the owner of it. In that context, it is technically “theft” to even take the half-used mini shampoo bottle at the end of your stay. You rented the room, but nowhere in your rental agreement does it say that you have purchased the shampoo bottle or bar of soap. So, as you probably have assumed in the past, […]
April 27, 2019
Us lawyers use a lot of techniques at deposition, a cross-examination to get opposing parties to say things that will help our case. Here are some that you can use in your everyday arguing. THE OBVIOUS YES TECHNIQUE The first technique is what I call the “obvious yes” technique and that is where you ask a series of general questions where the answer is obviously “yes,” leading to a question where a jury infers another “yes” is the correct answer, even though the person you are examining does not want to answer “yes.” For example, in a car accident case, […]
April 26, 2019
Wouldn’t our justice system be so much easier if everyone just took a lie detector test in the courtroom and the Judge found you guilty or not guilty based on the results? Our question today: Are polygraph Results Admissible in Court? Lie detector tests don’t really tell us when you are lying directly. Instead you are asked questions and the machine measures your biological responses to the questions – such as breathing and heart rate. Did you eat the last piece of pie? Do I look fat in these jeans? Where were you on the night of December 31, 1999? […]
April 25, 2019
The Florida Legislature has passed a complete overhaul of property insurance assignment of benefits law. These are big changes and will drastically affect water restoration companies and other businesses that utilize an assignment of benefits in the home insurance context. The 2019 reforms would seem to have been drafted by the insurance lobby and signed off on by the legislature. Doubtless these reforms will save the insurance industry millions of dollars. What are the major changes for those involved with assignments of benefits? First, the legislation limits assignments of benefits (“AOBs”) for emergency services to $3,000 or 1 percent of […]
April 22, 2019
Yesterday, Easter evening, a person dressed in a rabbit costume jumped into a fight on an Orlando sidewalk and started throwing punches. Only in Florida. So, is the rascally rabbit guilty of a crime? So, right away the clip shows a fight in progress. The key point from the first 5 seconds is that the woman in the black definitely has the upper-hand. The man is on his back on the ground and the woman has got his hair and hits him at least once before the bunny get involved. Now in the 5-25 second mark is where the bunny […]
April 22, 2019
You are constantly getting telemarketing calls and you are sick of it – it more than just bugs you – you are ready to take action. I am going to tell you what to do to fight back against telemarketers. I mean really fight back. You’re Going to Sue Them This is going to be a little work but it works: First, register your phone number with federal Do Not Call Registry. It’s www.donotcall.gov and it takes literally five minutes. Second, wait thirty-one days. That’s the statutory time in which telemarketers have to obtain your phone number and add it […]
April 18, 2019
How does the President of the United States get kicked out of office and what will this likely look like with President Trump? The impeachment process is found in the United States Constitution and it is begun by the House of Representatives with a simple majority vote. The impeachment then goes to the Senate for basically a trial on whether the President committed “High crimes and misdemeanors.” Unfortunately “high crimes and misdemeanors” is not defined by the Constitution (bad job founding fathers, my Constitutional professor would NOT approve) – so no one really knows what it means but it sounds […]
April 18, 2019
Can sexting, that is, texting a nude photo of yourself – get you in trouble with the law? Most of you have heard of Anthony Weiner and the legal trouble he found himself in after sending some nude pics of himself. With that in mind, and before we talk about the legal issues, ladies, please excuse me while I have a sidebar with all the men out there. Sidebar: Okay listen up guys – no one wants to see nude pictures of you, especially …closeups. No one. Just don’t do it. Don’t. Okay, now back to the larger issue. Almost […]