Thursday, January 28, 2010

Divorce: Where Do You Turn for Help?

Deciding to get a legal separation or divorce is never an easy choice. The decision can leave both parties feeling lonely, angry, and confused. It is important to know that there are places and people to turn to for empathy and guidance.

Forums for support

Each couple has their own reasons for ending their marriage. Depending on your situation, you may look for emotional support in the following places:

  • Family and friends: Even if you did not see your family and friends as often while you were married, they will certainly understand and be there to help you during this difficult time.
  • Divorce support groups: There are many different kinds of divorce support and recovery groups that meet in person on a periodic basis. Check on the Internet or your local newspaper to find a group near you. You can also reach out to a Birmingham divorce lawyer or divorce lawyer in your state to find local support groups.
  • Online forums: New technology has allowed for the growth of thousands of online, interactive divorce support communities. Try signing up for an online forum where you can meet many people who can relate to your situation, and offer advice.

If you are looking for divorce advice in Birmingham or throughout central Alabama, contact our lawyers at Covenant Law Firm, P.C. We are located 2230 Third Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Who is At Fault?: Motorcycle Accident Liability

Who is at fault in a motorcycle accident?

Injuries from a motorcycle accident are often serious or fatal. Although motorcycles give the rider an enormous feeling of freedom, the bike does not offer one bit of protection in an accident. If you were involved in a motorcycle accident as a rider or passenger and the accident was someone else’s fault, you can sue the individual or damages.

Do not Admit Guilt

After the accident, even if you were partly to blame for the accident, you should not admit any guilt or fault on your part. Motor vehicle drivers sometimes blame the accident on the actions of the motorcycle rider. If a driver said he did not see the motorcycle rider changing lanes, or making a turn, it demonstrates the motor vehicle driver was negligent. If your bike came back from maintenance with a defective part and caused an accident, the person and company responsible for the repair is liable for the accident.

Steps following a Motorcycle Accident

There are steps you should follow after any accident, including motorcycle accidents. First, stay with your motorcycle and call 911. Then, seek medical attention for anyone injured at the scene, especially you. After your injury has been stabilized, preserve any evidence, photos, or videos taken at the accident that can help you if you pursue a motorcycle injury lawsuit. Lastly, ensure you have all the contact information for the following parties: the other drivers, witnesses, police officer, and insurance companies.

Seek a Motorcycle Accident Attorney

When you are well enough, bring your accident case to a motorcycle accident attorney in Houston. The attorney will review the accident, and elicit reasons you think someone is liable for the accident. The attorney should review the police report, location of the vehicles, photos, videos, and any other evidence you may have. If it is not obvious on the police report how the accident occurred and who is liable, perhaps further investigation of the accident will be necessary.

Do Not Negotiate your own Settlement

Never negotiate with any insurance company yourself. Your motorcycle accident attorney has the best probability of gaining the highest compensation for your injuries. You may be awarded damages for pain and suffering, medical expenses, damage to your motorcycle and other personal property, and loss of earnings if the accident has caused you to lose work time.

This article has been provided by the Houston motorcycle accident lawyer of the Duke Firm, P.C., 888-314-5720, www.localzoomlawyer.com.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Things You Have To Know In Case You Get In An Auto Accident

Cases as a result of physical injury that happen after auto accidents
are many and they happen all the time such that one may sue or be sued as the contributor of the other party's loss. It is only an auto accident attorney
in Houston who may be able to advise if a resident from there needing his or her services has a convincing case pending against the other person only after they receiving the right information.

The good news is that finding a perfect personal injury attorney in Texas is the easiest thing to do right now since there professionals are countless and they do not ask for upfront fees to accept being consulted to represent a particular case. Often they work on a contingency fee method meaning that if they win the case a share of the compensation for damages goes to them.

Several of them have many years of continuous representation of victims of this nature and understand exactly how to go about everything. The nature of services provided extend to include the lost earning as a result of medical cost incurred after the accident not to mention the endured pain and torture. On the part of victim, they must always file a petition against the other party fast before certain statues of limitation bind them hence prevented from seeking compensation for showing up later than set deadline.

Right after the accident make an appointment with the auto accident attorney Houston to explain to them details of the case such as identification of the defendant, validating insurance coverage, sending letters to reach them and their insurer. After this the investigation of the case is launched and the property loss matters are resolved.

Friday, December 11, 2009

The Negative Effects of Bankruptcy

When someone is considering filing for bankruptcy, chances are that they aren’t thinking of all the repercussions that they are going to have after it’s over. Here are negative affects of filing for bankruptcy.

No say in how much you will have to repay to your creditors, since the decision isn’t in your hands any more.

Loss of assets or treasured items, such as your house or car, or even your business if you are business owner. Payments to repay creditors can be garnished from wages for as many as five years. Consumer debtors have to attend credit counseling within the first six months after they file for bankruptcy. Debtors have to finish an education in personal financial management before they are able to get a discharge.

If it’s a chapter 13 bankruptcy, it will be your personal credit report for 7 years, if it’s a chapter 7 it stays on for 10 years.

When someone is considering filing for bankruptcy, they need to think about the negative affects of what they are doing and ask themselves if there isn’t a better way to help themselves out of a financial mess. Chances are that there is, they just have to do some research and ask for some advice from other people. Credit counseling is a good place to start. Bankruptcy is not the only option that they have to go on.

It pays to get multiple opinions before you end up filing. Bankruptcy stays on your record for 10 years, so you need to go into this knowing everything in advance.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Public Criminal Background Check - How To Get The Most From Public Background Checks

Doing a public criminal background check today has become part of the landscape that is society. With the resources of the internet now at a person's disposal this type of recognassaince is pretty much at the fingertips of most people with a computer.

However, getting the entire picture is proving to be a barrier because you can access information in bits and pieces but much of it is not interlinked which can make searching a long experience and a frustrating one.

So conducting a public criminal background check is a good plan of action if you need to check on a new employee, a flatmate, on online date you're meeting or just about anything which may be too good to be true. In this article, we'll lay down some guidelines in getting the most from your searches.

Public Background Criminal Checks

- You can use a search engine and input the name or address, and maybe some information will come up, but it may not be complete. It will give you a general idea if the person is a criminal if you find something, but if you don’t, then you still don’t know if you have a complete background check or not.

- This is where many amateurs make judgment errors and unknowingly employ, or become involved with a fugitive, sex-offender, or worse. There is one all-encompassing source called PACER-mainly available to the FBI and not the public. Many states and counties have their own websites where you can do a public background criminal check, but they may not have websites available for general criminal checks, just other purposes.

- You could use The U.S. Federal Prison Database to do a background criminal check on inmates, and a limited archive of past inmates, parolees, and probationary criminals. The Highway Patrol has sources to do your own background check; however, you need to know all the places an individual has been to know where to look for their background or history.

- The main thing to consider when you are doing background criminal check is that it is very time consuming to check all databases, even if you have all the information, which you probably don’t. A criminal wanting to hide their past, may know ways to keep things hidden in an employment application, dating situation, and in moving next door to you.

- The U.S. Department of Justice now requires convicted sex offenders to be registered, but usually doing a public background criminal check does not list outstanding warrants and arrests until they become convictions.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Identity Theft Help And Information Guide

Identity theft is becoming a hot topic all over the world now. Every country has been involved in solving identity theft cases. Many counters have introduced many laws regarding penalties for such crimes. Many have modified their justice books for this purpose.

It was not such a major problem in past times. But changing times and invention of newer technologies have given rise to criminals who think smarter and have greater ideas to steal something that is very personal to that person. This stealing is called as identity theft. Identity theft is not on stealing your name or anything and pretending to be you, but it is more than that.

It is about stealing that is very personal to you and making profits out of it. But now there is very frequently asked question that after any one has noticed that he/she has experienced identity theft, what next? Whom to contact? What steps to take? And what sort of help can be available.

Various help options

Main thing to do is to seek help of provider of the stolen product. If it is credit card, then always call for customer care number and ask for help. You will definitely get all possible help out there. They will block all further transactions related to that card and also activate the sensor which follows card transactions and can be detected from place where that card has just been used.

Next and most important is to launch a compliant against identity theft. It has been observed that many people don’t launch the compliant even after experiencing identity theft because of thinking that nothing can happen now. This is wrong. There have been many cases solved by police and that too very successfully. So go for department help and file your case against identity theft. Police will start further procedures of investigations and searches for suspected ones.

They also have previous records which can help out to trace if it is same case that had happened before. You can also have searches on your personal basis. You can try to remember last travel you made to place where it may have been stolen. Inform such things department and help them more. There are many other sources to take help from.

Online help

Now day’s online help is also available about identity theft. You can always refer to such help topics and get more information about such crimes. With help of such information you can always find out that are your really victim of identity theft? If yes, then what are proper and correct steps to overcome such situations? Remember, on personal level;, it can be easy to manage such thefts, but imagine such identity theft in case of some organizations.

Such cases are most complicated to solve. These cases also involve Consumer rights commissions also to some extent. These organizations help the department and government to overcome such identity theft cases. identity theft help

Can be obtained on large scale by sites hosted by national governments also and provide proper legal actions to take. They provide you with proper guide.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

What is a Living Will

Indeed, what is a living will? We might have encountered this situation before or know someone who did in the past. You might have heard it movies or in television shows but have no idea at all what it is. In its most technical sense, a living will
is a legal document issued by individuals which specifies specific course actions that should be taken concerning their health in the event that they (the person who issued the living will) are incapable of making any decisions due to illness or incapacity. Other states might have a different term for it but most often living wills are also referred to as advance health care directives, an advance directives or advance decisions. But for the sake of our discussion, let’s stick with living will.

Just for the sake of being clear, imagine yourself being in an accident and ended up in a coma. Your doctors informed your next of kin that your current situation is less likely to improve for some time. Your family would debate about your situation and would be in a dilemma whether to continue life sustaining treatment. If you have a living will, your specific wishes on these life sustaining treatments will be followed by your doctors as long as everything is legal is legal, of course.

The legality of the document will depend on the mental state of the person during the time he/she signed the papers. He/she needs to be in a sound mind and knows the every bit of consequence the document will have. The document also needs to be quite specific. It needs to cite the kinds of requested future treatments. And most importantly, a living will is voluntary. If proven that the person signed the document under duress, the legality of the living will is no longer valid.

As part of this requirement, it is imperative that your witnesses in the document are by no means related by blood, marriage, adoption or have any claims to inheritance to whatever properties you will leave behind. Even your physicians, any employee of your hospital or health facility and your attorneys for health care cannot be your witnesses. The document can be revoked anytime, however, whether you’re mentally capable or competent, does not matter. But remember that once you signed the document, it is valid until you die.

The contents of the will can be as detailed as to avoid any form of antibiotics. But at the same time it can still be quite broad like do all life sustaining treatments available during that time. This one, however, would still be based on the assessments of your medical team.

What is a living will? It is an option. It is something that you can think about today in order to make it easier for your love ones to decide in case situations called for it. Just be certain that you tell someone that you have this legal document lying around. Your health care proxy should be informed for the document is no good if no one knows about it.