The Happy, Thankful Lawyer

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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 +

Low Speed Impacts Cannot Result in Injuries? Baloney!

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For years car insurance companies have been hammering personal injury attorneys on cases where the car that was hit showed little-to-no property damage. The theory being, how can your client possibly be hurt when the car involved had a minimal amount of property damage? What’s “minimal” property damage? Believe it or not, most adjusters seem to think the $1,000 mark is the threshold. So, if it cost $900 to fix your car, there’s no way you can be injured. If it cost $1,010 to repair, Read More +

It’s Good to Move Every 23 Years….

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Our law office has been here in the Key West Center in Palm Harbor for more than 20 years. In fact, we were the first tenants in the building – we moved here in July, 1989. I’ve been coming to my same office space longer than Harry Potter has been alive (both the book series and the actor who portrays him). In this office we watched the jury come back with the OJ Simpson verdict, watched the awful events unfold on 9/11, listened to the horrors of Read More +

Dog Bites Man – Man Fights Back

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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 +

Lawyer Rating Services

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There are a number of online organizations that investigate and rate lawyers and law firms throughout the country. This handy tool is one way consumers can determine where their attorney stacks up among the competition. Martindale-Hubbell is well known and probably the most prestigious. www.martindale.com.  Lawyers rated on this website are “peer reviewed” meaning other attorneys have given them a particular grade, not the folks at Martindale.   Lawyers are graded on a scale of A, B or C, with “B” being, by far, the grade Read More +

The Very Serious Subject of “Statutory Rape” in Florida

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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 +