Archive for December, 2011
December 30, 2011
As 2011 draws to a close, we would like to take a look back on the last twelve months and a look ahead into what next year has got in store for us. This past year was full of legal juggernauts; it was jam-packed with stories of a legal nature that piqued our national interest and brought issues of the courts into our family discussions.
Casey Anthony dominated headlines in 2011, especially during the summer months, when her murder trial, dubbed the “murder trial of the century” by multiple commentators, took place in Orlando. To the dismay and disbelief of prosecutors Jeff Ashton and Linda Drane-Burdick (and most of the American public), but to the delight of defense attorneys Jose Baez and J. Cheney Mason, Casey Anthony was found NOT GUILTY of charges relating to the murder of her daughter, Caylee. However, despite being acquitted of the most serious charges, Casey had to face her various other victims in civil court, where she has been (and probably will be) ordered to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars that she caused the police departments to spend in a pointless search for Casey’s daughter.
Another major NOT GUILTY decision this year came in Italy during the appeals trial of an American, Amanda Knox, who was charged with the murder of her roommate. According to the jurors, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate a conviction of Knox, who is now back in the United States, presumably in her hometown of Seattle, Washington.
With the pattern of NOT GUILTY verdicts this year, many thought that Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, would have been acquitted. However, whether it be because of malpractice, or because his supposed victim was pop icon Michael Jackson, Dr. Murray was found GUILTY of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in California prison.
Now, let’s look ahead at some of the 40,000 new laws which take effect on the New Year…
A new California law will add the phrase “gender identity and gender expression” onto the list of attributes that require equal rights.
In Delaware and Hawaii, same-sex couples will be eligible for the same rights and benefits as married couples under the state laws.
In New Hampshire, people under the age of eighteen will have to tell a parent before getting an abortion – or seek a court order to avoid the required parental notification.
In California, a new law will prohibit the sale (and production) of beer to which caffeine has been added.
In both Oregon and California, the sale of shark fins will now be illegal.
In Oregon, state colleges and universities will be required to waive tuition fees for foster children under the age of twenty-five.
A new law in Nevada will prohibit all drivers from texting and using handheld devices.
In North Dakota, starting on the first of the year, will ban drivers under eighteen from using their cell phones in their cars (and will ban all drivers of all ages from texting while driving)
From all of us here at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg, have a happy and healthy 2012!! Let’s hope it’s nothing like the Tom Cruise movie! And while we don’t expect alien invasions or world-wide human destruction, we can expect the small nuisances of life to continue. So if you do end up needing legal advice, please contact us at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com.
December 28, 2011
We’ve all heard plenty about personal injury lawyers – especially living in Florida, where personal injury law firm commercials seem to exceedingly outnumber all other types of televised advertisements. The constant barrage of simulated images and personal injury lawyer quips might get annoying, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. On the contrary, they can be of great value to you. How many times have you see commercials for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America? Probably a lot. But that doesn’t mean that someone with cancer shouldn’t seek the Center’s help – their advertisements may be aggressive but so is their treatment. The same is true for law firms.
Personal injury cases are tricky things. They are intricate in nature and one misstep can cost you dearly. How many car accidents would you guess occur every day in this country? Two hundred? Five hundred? Two thousand? Try sixteen thousand. That’s right, sixteen thousand car accidents happen every single day in this country. That’s nearly six million each year. Thus, every year, millions of Americans are forced to miss work (and pay) due to auto accidents. And with their injuries, some are forced to struggle to earn a living for the rest of their lives. Car accidents don’t just end lives, they ruin them, too.
Alas, auto accidents aren’t the only type of personal injury-related accidents. Millions of other Americans face debilitations caused by medical malpractice – a wrongdoing by a medical professional. These types of injuries are often times much more serious. Personal injury cases involve torts – that is, wrongdoings caused by another individual or entity. That can entail a car accident, a wrongdoing by a surgeon, or management not cleaning up a slippery floor in the kitchenware section at Wal-Mart.
All of these types of injuries, and many more related to them, are costly in more ways than one; they not only inflict emotional and physical pain, and not only are they time consuming, but they cost a lot of money. It costs money to receive medical attention, it costs money to miss work, it costs money to repair a car, and it costs money to even attempt to retrieve any of the money you may have lost in the aforementioned expenditures. Here is where a lawyer can come in handy.
The process of recovering losses can be a daunting one; one wrong turn can ruin your chances of attaining justice. That’s why you should “hire” an experienced law firm, a law firm that concentrates only in personal injury, to take control of the reigns and make sure you end up with the compensation you deserve. The word “hire” is in quotations because most of the time, when someone “hires” someone else, they pay them money for their services. At a personal injury firm like ours, you won’t spend a dime out of pocket, even if we win! We get paid based on the amount that we are able to recover for you. So once you receive that final check from us, you don’t owe us a dime! You’ve spent enough on medical bills and rental cars, the last thing you need is a law firm bugging you for more money.
Personal injury lawyers are trained in—go figure—personal injury cases! That means that they’ve handled countless cases just like yours so they know exactly how to navigate the process. Hiring a personal injury lawyer shouldn’t be an embarrassment. Even the smartest people around know when it’s time to hire a professional. You might be brilliant, but if you broke your foot, you wouldn’t try to tape it up yourself—you would go see a podiatrist, because a podiatrist has years and years of training and experience dealing with injuries just like yours.
We also suggest that you seek a law firm that handles only personal injury cases. Some law firms try to do a bunch of different types of law. Some firms “dabble” in personal injury cases and also do some real estate, some bankruptcy, some foreclosure work. Would you rather see a general physician who practices all sorts of medicine for your broken neck OR would you rather see a neck specialist?
This law firm only does personal injury cases. We have a combined 45 years of experience working on personal injury cases from the beginning through trial. We know how to handle your personal injury case from start to finish, inside and out. Let us help you with your case. For questions or more information, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg and Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com.
December 13, 2011
Apple’s iPad 2 has strategically formed an alliance with today’s legal world. We have commented before on the many helpful apps that Apple offers to attorneys both in the court room and when compiling research. The iPad 2 has been great but as a new rival enters the market, could that loyalty be compromised? On November 15, 2011 Amazon released its Wi-Fi tablet, the Kindle Fire.
From a strictly aesthetic perspective the two tablets look similar enough. The Amazon Kindle Fire sports a 7 inch screen and offers 8GB of memory. The Apple iPad 2 enjoys a 10 inch screen, accompanied by 16GB of memory. However, what the Kindle Fire lacks in memory it compensates in price. The Kindle Fire is priced at $199, which is a steal next to the iPad 2’s intimidating entry level price tag of $499. In the iPad 2’s defense, it does offer two cameras and a microphone where as the Kindle Fire lacks cameras and microphones. Although all that that really means is that the Kindle Fire does not offer Skype video chat, which in regards to the legal world may be irrelevant anyway. Also, the Kindle Fire runs Flash, a program that allows users to stream videos and TV shows from websites like Sidereel.com and other such websites. iPad users will not enjoy this luxury, as Apple tablets do not support Flash software. They may watch TV shows either through subscriptions to HBO and Netflix or by purchasing individual episodes and movies from iTunes, which can surely rack up a huge bill. Once again, the streaming of free TV shows has little relevance as to which tablet will better suit your needs in the court room, so for the purpose of this article we will excuse that flaw on Apple’s behalf.
The real core of the debate lies not in the appearances of the devices, but rather in their abilities. Apple’s iTunes app store offers many attorney friendly apps at various prices, some of which are free. Journals like The American Lawyer and the ABA Journal are available to catch up on the latest legal news. Black’s Law Dictionary is available to instantly offer definitions and refreshers of legal jargon. The Bloomberg app offers current news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders/laggers, price charts, market trends analysis, and more. Law Box is another app and it provides access to the text of the United States Code and the state statutes of Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas. Fastcase, is another web-based research service that provides access to U.S. cases and statutes. These apps, among so many more, are part of the ever growing pool of legal resources available only via iTunes to iPad users.
However while the Kindle Fire may be new, it too has some tricks up its sleeve. Amazon’s Android app store has made some of the apps available on iTunes available in their store as well, such as Docket in Your Pocket. For attorneys practicing in Pennsylvania, the Docket in Your Pocket app provides unlimited access to the dockets of Pennsylvania’s Criminal Courts of Common Pleas, Magesterial District Courts, and Municipal Court. Also, Amazon’s Android app store has created some of its own apps to rival those in iTunes which sell similar products under alias names. An example of this is iTunes Congress+ app, which offers information about the current session of Congress. The app is available in iTunes for $4.99 and offers the ability to identify elected officials in the House and Senate, obtain their contact information, legislative activity and campaign developments. The Android app store offers an almost identical app in their store for free. This is just one instance of many where the Kindle Fire rivals the iPad for all of your legal needs.
There are several reviews that, between the two competing tablets, recommend purchasing the Kindle Fire, especially in today’s economy. There are also those reviews that endorse purchasing the iPad 2, claiming that it is faster than the unpolished Kindle Fire. Remember the first generation of personal computers, talk about unpolished. The iPad 2 is Apple’s second generation of the iPad, the first generation iPad had many glitches and lesser features than the current generation. In the end, Amazon was smart to offer their product at such a low price, drawing in an abundance of attention. Be on the lookout because the second generation Kindle Fire may be just around the corner and equipped with both high megapixel cameras and high quality microphones, sans the glitches and ready to give Apple a run for their money. In a professional legal setting, for now, it does seem that the iPad has more to offer, although the Kindle Fire is a worthy competitor. However in a few generations with some further developments, the Kindle Fire may just be the smarter tablet of choice.
For questions or to obtain legal advice, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com.
December 9, 2011
We are happy to announce the addition of a new office located in Boca Raton, Florida. The new office is conveniently located on Yamato Road, just east of I-95. The Boca Raton office will be in addition to our main office at 2160 West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida, along with our other satellite offices in Plantation, Wellington, Cherry Hill, NJ and Washington, DC.
Please feel free to contact us at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com to set an appointment to come see us in our new office.
Suppose you or someone you know is driving home from work on I 95. The highway is busy, the car in front of you is barely doing 45 mph and the cars to the left and right of you are zipping by at over 100 mph. Frustrations begin to boil in your stomach. You’re exhausted, you’re late to pick up the kids and someone still needs to walk the dog.
All of a sudden, SMACK!! A car came completely out of left field and tried to merge right into you. Instinctively you both pull over. Your hands are shaking and your heart is beating so fast. Your neck is pulsating with pain and the world’s biggest migraine is sweeping over your brain like a black rain cloud. You manage to get out of the car only to look and see that the side of your car is completely bashed in. You obviously are not the one at fault so the other guy’s insurance will clearly cover the cost of both having your car repaired and allowing a doctor to prescribe something for the pain in your neck that is now intensifying so that you may only turn your head slightly left. But wait, the driver of the other car does not have insurance, nor does he personally have the funds to cover the cost of fixing your car. O boy, what to do? Luckily, not only are you insured with all the normal trimmings but you also thought to purchase an insurance policy for what is called “uninsured motorists.” All of those pesky monthly insurance payments are finally going to pay off. Your insurance, under your uninsured motorist clause, will now cover both the cost of your medical bills and the cost of your automotive repairs.
Let’s even say that the other driver did not have the courtesy to pull over after they so clearly bashed into you. Now there is no one to even put at blame and in thirty seconds you have just fallen victim to a “hit and run.” Have no fear because under the uninsured motorist clause you are still insured against a hit and run.
On Tuesday, 78 year old Maria Elisa Morales was crossing the street on her way to visit her grandchildren. She was just reaching the sidewalk when a speeding car ran right into her. She was killed instantly and the driver continued to speed away. Detective Rodriguez has been assigned to the case and is trying to find the driver of the vehicle that hit her but has so far been unsuccessful. “Everything is in the hands of the public,” Rodriguez said. “Without their help, it’s gonna be hard to find this guy.” If Detective Rodriguez is unable to find the driver, the family’s only chance at compensation will be Maria Morales’ uninsured motorist insurance.
In some states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland and New York uninsured motorist insurance is required, in Florida however that is not the case. When one chooses insurance policies they should always remember the importance of the uninsured motorist clause. Although you may be the safest of drivers, accidents do happen and one can never account for the other drivers on the road.
For questions or to obtain legal advice, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com.
December 7, 2011
Parents are expected to play many roles all in one day. They are expected to be caregivers, guidance counselors, providers, discipliners, teachers, supervisors and so many other roles all at once. At times, it can surely be a hassle to remember all of the little details which is why a new campaign was announced today in Palm Beach County with the objective of helping parents remember a particular little detail; there is a “baby in the back” of the car.
The Safety Council of Palm Beach County, the Palm Beach County Sherriff’s Office, as well as personal injury attorney’s are endorsing this new campaign which they say at a low cost will increase caregivers awareness and help them to remember if they have forgotten that their child is sitting quietly in the back of the vehicle. This new campaign, “Baby in Back,” involves drivers wearing a blue silicone bracelet only when children are present in their vehicle. Officials say that the blue bracelet is sure to not only remind adults to implement extra cautious driving when children are present but also that once the adult leaves the car if they still have their bracelet on the child is likely still sitting in the back seat of their car.
Representative of the Safety Council, Donna Bryan, says that parents and other caregivers can forget their children in the back seat for a number of reasons and that no one is immune to it. She says that “wearing this bracelet is going to be ideal. It’ll help and cue the brain to remember.”
Deputy Chief Steve Delai of the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue says that forgotten children in vehicles are possibly the most traumatic calls that his agency receives. He says that they come more than once a day and over 400 times a year. He also makes the point that “we’ve got a lot going on in our lives, but children can’t protect themselves.”
If you are interested in obtaining a free bracelet contact the Safety Council of Palm Beach County at (561) 845-8233. It is a terrible thing for a child to lose their life for being forgotten in a car and sadly it happens much more often than it should. We hope that this campaign will grow in popularity and bring upon a significant number in the decrease if terrible occurrences of this kind.
For questions or to obtain legal advice, please contact the Law Offices of Aronberg and Aronberg at 561-266-9191 or email us at daronberg@aronberglaw.com.
