Pinellas Recognizes Domestic Registry – I’m Offering Price Reduction on Powers of Attorney

Written by
As was reported in the Tampa Bay Times this week, our County Commission has finally granted unmarried couples – same sex and straight – legal recognition through our County’s registry. This follows three local cities that have already adopted this: Gulfport, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. I applaud our Commission for doing this. It’s a good start. Legally and ethically it is the right thing to do and will ensure couples access to each other in case of hospitalizations along with other benefits. However, as the Read More +

The Happy, Thankful Lawyer

Written by
It is said there are no such things as happy lawyers, only happy people who made serious career mistakes. After all, the stereotyped attorney is a grumpy professional, surly, growling at the world through rapacious teeth just looking for a fight. In actuality, while there are some of those out there, they do tend to prematurely “self-deport” from the profession after massive strokes and heart attacks when they’ve won the legal fight but lost the war of living a meaningful life. And I have known Read More +

Dog Bites Man – Man Fights Back

Written by
We all love our pets, but we occasionally hear of something that went terribly wrong when a dog cannot control its behavior and a bite occurs resulting in an ugly injury. A few years ago a young mother from New Port Richey brought her beautiful 5 year old daughter to my office. With long blond hair and blue eyes, it was like she fell out of a Pottery Barn for Kids catalogue. But I immediately saw the problem. Besides an innate sadness not usually seen Read More +

The Very Serious Subject of “Statutory Rape” in Florida

Written by
As an attorney I am often asked why some people in Florida are arrested after having consensual sexual relations with a minor and some aren’t, and it’s a very good question. There is an article in the Tampa Bay Times this week about a 30 year old New Port Richey woman who was arrested for statutory rape with a minor. This relationship was not only consensual, this woman was actively living with her 17 year old boyfriend in a committed relationship and she is currently pregnant Read More +

Lawyers & Frivolous Lawsuits

Written by
Aha, I got your attention! For years we’ve heard about crazy lawsuits that sound improbable at best and fraudulent at worst.  We’ve all heard them. They generally tend to fall into two categories:  (1) Stupid people who hurt themselves, get a lawyer and then sue a store or a business where the jury gives them all sorts of money for the injury that occurred at the store or on the businessman’s property; and, (2) even worse, people who commit a crime, get hurt, hire a Read More +

The Land of Sunshine, Beautiful Beaches and Sinkholes

Written by
“The Land of Sunshine, Beautiful Beaches and……..Sinkholes”** It seems like everyone in Tampa Bay has somehow been touched by a sinkhole. If you don’t own a home that has cracked in half because of one, then you have a relative or coworker or close friend who has lived through this menace. They are Florida’s equivalent of a small and confined, but equally destructive, earthquake. Except, instead of shaking from side to side, the land opens underneath the structure and can swallow your house whole. Or Read More +