Evidence Preservation and Forensic Auto Accident Investigations: Seatbelts and Lightbulbs
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
Things to Watch out for in the Florida 2016 Legislative Session: Make Bodily Injury Liability Insurance Mandatory for All Automobile Owners
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
Things to Watch out for in the Florida 2016 Legislative Session: Hold Insurance Companies Responsible by Keeping Florida’s Bad Faith Law Alive
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
Things to Watch out for in the Florida 2016 Legislative Session: There Is a Storm Brewing in the Florida Legislature and We Are in the Cone of Uncertainty – Fight to Keep Your Ability to Assign Your Benefits so That You Can Be Protected After Disaster Strikes
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
The Six Things You Should Know About the Taxability of Personal Injury Recoveries
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
Borrower Beware: Loan-to-Own Scams and How to Avoid Them
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
Breach of Contract: Immaterial versus Material Breaches
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
Repo! The Genetic Opera, UCC 9-609 and Purchase Money Security Interests
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
Contractarianism and Weirdness: The Meat of Mechanics, Fine Print in Focus – a Postmodern approach.
I have just started watching the fourth season of The Twilight Zone. It was, in the first episode of season four, which is entitled “In His Image,” that I began to realize the difference between a series such as this and, say, almost any David Lynch film. They are the exact inverse of one another.
Simply, I suggest, that the difference between almost any episode in The Twilight Zone versus that of a David Lynch film is that the TWZ episodes are about 80% normal with a 20% zany twist whereas DL films are