Archive for October 19, 2015

Have you been involved in an auto accident? It is common knowledge that most individuals take pictures of the scene of the accident, pictures of their car, pictures of relative locations of the vehicle(s) as well as whatever other topical information that can be gathered (e.g., weather and road conditions). While most newer vehicles come with EDRs (Event Data Recorders) that capture the vitals of a vehicle just before airbag deployment (e.g., speed, impact location, seatbelt use, braking, etc.) there are also less common known artifacts which merit inspection.

Did you

Did you know that Florida currently doesn’t require automobile owners to carry Bodily Injury (“BI”) protection? This means that if you are involved in an automobile accident that there is a good chance that the at-fault driver may not have additional insurance coverage to cover some or all of your injuries? This costs Florida, Tax Payers, Hospitals, and the general public millions of dollars.

Right now, there are 48 other states which require all motorists to have Mandatory Bodily Injury coverage or other proof of financial responsibility in the amount of

2015 HB 1088 and SB 1197 which did not survive committee, sought to protect insurers when they have acted in “bad faith.” Currently, Florida allows for both first party and third party bad-faith actions against insurance companies. “Laws that require insurers and other businesses to act in good faith are good public policy benefiting both policy holders and victims. The reason policyholders pay premiums to insurance companies is to protect themselves legally and financially, and grant insurers the exclusive control over decisions to investigate, evaluate, and settle claims against the

2015 HB 669 and SB 1064 which did not survive committee, sought to prevent individuals who wanted to assign their contract benefits to third parties. A very common situation this arises in occurs when your property is damaged after a storm or a hurricane (e.g., Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Dennis, and Hurricane Wilma) and you need to get your home repaired immediately. A contractor comes to your home, performs the necessary repairs and you assign your property insurance benefits to the contractor so that they can take

2015 HB 1199 and SB 1240 which did not survive committee, sought to take away the jury’s ability to hear evidence of a doctor’s or hospital’s full charges for treatment rendered to an individual who was harmed due to the negligence of another. Individuals are entitled to have the highest quality of care and if that individual is unable to recover for unpaid medical bills, the doctor and their patient are now forced into adversaries.

This type of proposed legislation would contribute to overcrowding the court system and allow wrongdoers to

True or False? Verdicts or settlements received due to personal injuries are tax free.

Answer: It Depends.

A lot of people are under the misperception that if they receive monies in a personal injury settlement or verdict, that they do not have to pay tax on those monies. This is not necessarily correct.

While this is an overview of the taxability of personal injury recoveries, it is imperative that you consult with your accountant to make sure that you are and have properly reported any and all necessary personal injury recoveries.

The question then becomes: What and when do I

There are often times when individuals and businesses need to borrow money, and usually, there is nothing wrong with this. Whether it is for improvements, expansion or to purchase additional inventory, there are individuals and businesses that engage in what is otherwise known as “high-risk” lending. Due to the high risk, these lending arrangements are backed by terms and conditions that are significantly more onerous on the borrower than traditional unsecured credit, SBA loans and plain-vanilla secured financing.

Loan-to-own schemes involve high-risk lenders that loan money upfront for short-term (or long-term) financing at

Contracts are important business instruments. When businesses (or the people that run them) have reached what is commonly known as a “meeting of the minds”, a written contract allows the parties to memorialize their agreements. While it is true that certain contracts do not need to be in writing, it is better practice to make sure that all of your “contractual” agreements are written down and acknowledged by all parties. Not only is this because a written contract is stronger for evidentiary purposes, but, also, because, well, people forget things

Darren Bousman’s Repo! The Genetic Opera was meant to be an successfully unsuccessful movie. It paints the picture of a dark, zany, future where an “epidemic of organ failures” begins to kill off humans who cannot afford transplants. Out of reaction, a company, Gene Co., begins to make organ replacement accessible through financing. Unfortunately when  the debtor-in-possession/organ-replacement-recipient defaults, the creditor Gene Co., automatically pursues the individual without notice to recapture the organ/collateral. Oh, and did I mention this is a wicked rock opera too?

It struck me as interesting when thinking about the

Vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, and celery have rights. No, this is not some sick joke. Rather, veggie hate crimes came about as a result of powerful lobbying on behalf of the food industry. These laws subject individuals to liability for publicly making disparaging comments about certain agricultural food products.

For example, Florida Statutes, section 865.065 is entitled “Disparagement of perishable agricultural food products….” In it, the Florida legislature has made it a crime for an individual to make a willful, malicious, and false public comment regarding perishable food. The text of the