It's not unheard of for a bar, tavern or nightclub to face lawsuits after an over served patron causes a car accident. But a law school facing dram shop liability? That brings a whole new twist to the standard Florida dram shop case. Was law student knowingly over served alcohol at the "Barrister's Ball"? In early 2012, St. Thomas University in southeast Florida hosted an event known as the "Barrister's Ball." The Barrister's Ball is St. Thomas University's conception of law prom, a common social event held at law schools across the country. While ...

Filing for bankruptcy is a complex process with specific rules that must be followed. Failure to follow the rules may cause a bankruptcy petition to be dismissed. When a case is dismissed, the debts are not discharged and the filer is back where he or she started - dealing with creditors, wage garnishment and financial anxiety. Avoiding dismissal of your bankruptcy petition A bankruptcy dismissal occurs if you fail to meet the requirements of the court. Some of the most common mistakes people make include: - Failure to participate in pre-bankruptcy credit counseling: ...

Some credit card companies have recently been accused of sending incorrect bills to consumers. The bills may be larger than what consumers actually owe. In some cases, consumers have actually received bills when they did not owe anything at all. The problem seems widespread, with consumers receiving incorrect bills from American Express, Citigroup and others. Attempts to collect fake debt violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Experts think this illegal collection process is occurring because banks sell bad loans to collection companies. These collection ...

The term "QTIP" is shorthand for qualified-terminable-interest-property trust, a legal vehicle used through which property of one spouse can provide lifetime income to the other, usually after the death of the first spouse, with significant tax advantages. QTIPs make sense for married people of substantial wealth who would otherwise be subject to estate taxes. QTIPs are often used in a second or subsequent marriage when a husband or wife wants to provide income for his or her spouse until death, but then would like that property to pass to children from a previous ...

On a January evening in 2008, 49-year-old secretary Joyce Ann Jacobs was run over and killed by a public bus in Sacramento, California. Almost five years later, in early November 2012, a Sacramento Superior Court jury saw fit to award her child and husband more than $2.4 million in damages for her wrongful death. Jacobs was a church musician, a foster mother and a community volunteer. Her husband, a Sacramento pastor, was awarded $2 million "in noneconomic damages for the loss of his wife's love and consortium," meaning companionship and affection. He also ...

When debts have become unmanageable, filing for bankruptcy protection may be the best option. It is an effective way for people to get back on their feet, because it offers a debt relief over a shorter time period than debt consolidation plans. It is often especially attractive to homeowners because eliminating other debt often frees up the funds necessary to keep the family home. It is important for homeowners to understand how bankruptcy impacts home ownership. Some homeowners may not realize that a lender can foreclose on a home even after the owner has filed for ...

California workers gained some protections in this year's legislative session. While not as many employment-related bills became law this year as the previous year, about 18 new laws will be taking effect. Social media privacy Perhaps the most publicized new law constrains employers from asking employees for password access to personal social media accounts, under most circumstances. The central issue is privacy. Counting California, only three states have such a law. Some have criticized the legislation, saying that there is really no need for the law, because ...

After a person is injured in a motor vehicle accident, the first task is to secure medical treatment for immediately apparent injuries and diagnose the full extent of other problems such as back injuries and head injuries. Next, an injury victim may benefit from discussing the wreck with a personal injury lawyer to assess the reasons why the car accident happened. One cause of car and truck accidents that has received increasing attention over the past decade is distracted driving. While Texas has lagged somewhat behind other states in passing statewide cell phone and ...

In the wake of the financial crisis, disturbing stories started to emerge about fraud and misconduct at some of the nation's largest financial institutions. For the most part, these abuses were brought to light by brave employees who had the courage to report inappropriate behavior to federal authorities. These so-called whistleblower claims are a very important part of the U.S. justice system. Often, employees are in a much better place to detect misconduct than law enforcement officials or regulators are. Of course, bringing a whistleblower claim has its risks: ...

Children, although as wonderful as they may be, can often be expensive. Supporting a child on two incomes is difficult enough. However, when parents are divorced or never married, supporting children on one income can sometimes seem almost impossible. To help mitigate these effects, a system called child support was created. Child support is a payment made by the non-custodial parent to help with the daily expenses of raising a child. It is becoming more and more common that these payments are being avoided by the non-custodial parent, and custodial parents need to take ...

For some people, it can be difficult to take the first steps toward making a plan that would carry out their wishes after they pass away. No one knows exactly how much time he or she has before these documents will become necessary. Putting these directions and wishes on paper can help ensure that these wishes are followed, and that the things that are being handed down go to the proper individual. While dealing with the loss of a loved one is a very challenging time, families will often have other concerns to deal with after the passing. In order to carry out the deceased's ...

Arizona has long taken a tough stand against drunk drivers. Police plan aggressive sobriety campaigns within the region, which can catch many motorists off-guard. Once arrested, an individual may not know what to expect. The penalties that may result in the event of a conviction may have life-changing consequences. The holidays have often been a very busy time for law enforcement officers patrolling for drunk drivers. Recently, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office received a grant from the Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety to help take drunk drivers off of the ...

According to California state investigators, a maintenance issue led to a crane accident that crushed and killed a 51-year-old worker in a Bay Area port last month. NBC Bay Area News reported that a spokesman for California's Division of Occupational Safety and Heath (Cal-OSHA), Peter Melton, said that two workers were attempting to fix a maintenance problem regarding the crane's trolley wheels when the crane accident took place. Specifically, the workers were attempting to adjust the trolley wheels so that all four wheels were on the rails when one of the workers was ...

In Alaska and across the country, distracted driving has been receiving considerable attention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has been trying to address the problem of distracted driving by educating drivers about the dangers of using a cellphone or texting while operating a motor vehicle. The agency's efforts are certainly needed. NHTSA data shows that in 2010, 3,092 people died in car accidents where a distracted driver was involved. About 416,000 more people were injured that year in distracted ...

The Pennsylvania child support guidelines presume that a non-custodial parent will have custody of the children for 30 percent of the overnights in a calendar year. This 30 percent presumption is built into the child support formula and applies even if the non-custodial parent has the children for less than 30 percent of the overnights. In fact, even a non-custodial parent who has been denied visitation to the children is required to pay child support, as calculated pursuant to the PA child support guidelines. In this respect, child custody and the obligation to pay child ...

People who receive for Social Security retirement and disability benefits all have one thing in common: they are generally among those Americans who must get by on a fixed income. Nonetheless, Social Security benefits are subject to annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), and increases for 2013 have been announced by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The SSA revealed in October that the more than 60 million Americans who receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and retirement benefits will see a 1.7 percent boost ...

Over the course of your lifetime, you've likely accumulated a broad array of possessions. When your time comes, your property will be distributed to your heirs. But will it go where you want it to? "Probate" is the court supervised administration of a person's "estate" (everything you own at the time of your death). If you die in the state of Nevada without a will, you are said to have died "intestate." If you do have a will, a probate court will do its best to respect your wishes, albeit with a degree of discretion and interpretive power. With ...

Of course, grandparents and grandchildren can form extremely tight emotional bonds. Grandparents can be as important as parents for some kids, depending on the family situation. When divorce or separation happens, or other circumstances prevent contact between grandchildren and their grandparents, it can naturally be hard on both the children and grandparents. In these types of situations, many states have laws governing what kinds of rights grandparents have to having their grandchildren live with them or to being able to visit with them. The Texas Practice Guide ...

Ohio homeowners know that today's housing market has diminished the equity in their most important investment. As a result of the housing crisis, many Ohio homeowners are "under water" on their homes, meaning they owe more on their home than it's worth. Still more people with second mortgages or home equity lines of credit have such severe negative equity that their homes are worth less than the amount owed on their primary mortgages. If a homeowner files for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, money owed on a junior mortgage can be treated as unsecured debt. In that ...

Medication errors cause serious problems for many people every year. Medication errors include combining medications that cannot mix together, being prescribed the wrong medication or taking the wrong dose of a medication. These errors can have major effects on patient health and can make a sick person even sicker. The medical profession sometimes tries to come up with ways to prevent medication errors, and one of these ways is to use electronic medication checklists. New study shows electronic records enhance medication reconciliation Some doctors handwrite medication ...

Many Illinois communities take very aggressive approaches to dealing with the issue of drunk driving. Law enforcement will often publicize DUI campaigns in advance, so that the public is aware of increased patrols in the region. Officials then use this arrest information to determine where to look for drunk drivers in the future, hoping that certain trends can be discovered that can lead to safer roadways. Young motorists often learn about drunk driving laws as soon as they begin to learn how to drive. Illinois, like many other jurisdictions, is a zero tolerance state. ...

Addiction has a crippling effect on one's life. A study performed by a research group based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, found that many physicians do not properly monitor injured workers after prescribing painkillers. By ignoring treatment guidelines, many injured workers become addicted to drugs such as Oxycontin or Vicodin after long-term use. Another study done by the Workers Compensation Research Institute has shown that one in 12 injured workers that are prescribed painkillers were still using these opioids three to six months after their injury and many of ...

The operating company of Tenaya Lodge near California's Yosemite National Park settled an employee complaint of sexual harassment and retaliation, according to a November 2012 news release by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, called the EEOC. Following an investigation by the Fresno Local Office of the EEOC, the company settled the complaint for $195,000 without admitting any liability. Role of the EEOC The EEOC is the federal agency charged with enforcing federal discrimination in employment laws. With more than 50 field offices across the country ...

Crashes between cars and commercial trucks are particularly devastating because of the sheer size differences between the vehicles. These crashes often involve serious injury or even death. In an attempt to address the problem, Louisiana has put the Department of Public Safety in charge of truck safety. The issue used to be the responsibility of the Department of Transportation. Since the change, fatal truck accidents in Louisiana have dropped by 44 percent. In addition, a new federal law has spurred truck companies to pay more attention to their safety requirements. ...

According to the Veterans Administration, suicide rates among veterans are nearly twice as high as the general population, and account for 20 percent of the suicides nationwide. In an effort to combat the high veteran suicide rate, the VA, the Medical University of South Carolina and the National Institutes of Health have launched a joint investigation into whether omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil can lower suicide risks. Omega-3s are the primary fats in the brain and are necessary for neural function and brain development; previous studies have shown that omega-3s ...