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 article states, the more encompassing document that same sex couples need is a Power of Attorney. A strong Power of Attorney is a totally comprehensive medical, legal and financial document that allows your loved one to act in your place if there is a need. The couple cited in the article linked above paid $1,600 for mutual Powers of Attorney.

As a celebration of this legal civil rights recognition, I am offering any same sex couple residing in Pinellas County a mutual set of Powers of Attorney for $50. Not $1,600. No strings attached. No hidden costs or fees. I may get a handful of takers, I may get dozens. No matter. It’s not meant to make money; it is meant to assist same sex couples who are still routinely hassled over the course of their relationship because they are not married, cannot get married and find themselves at the mercy of legal, medical and financial system. This will help. I promise.

If interested, please contact me through my e-mail: walt@glb-law.com. Please read the not-so-fine print below. And feel free to share this offer with other couples.

This offer is good until Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14^th, 2013. It is valid for same sex couples residing in Pinellas County, Florida. This offer has been pre-approved by the Florida Bar. 

The post Pinellas Recognizes Domestic Registry – I’m Offering Price Reduction on Powers of Attorney appeared first on Blenner Law Group.

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 many of them. Their family mourns them, few others do.

I’m happy to report that most lawyers I know are downright pleasant people out to do a job, professionally and zealously for their clients without being complete nimrods. In fact, regardless of what you’ve heard, the successful attorney is the one who treats everyone equally – their staff, their clients, other lawyers, judges and judges’ assistants (especially judges’ assistants!) – with utmost respect and decency. And you should respect your attorney, without fearing him or her. The art of Law is persuasion, persuasion is communication and without decent communication with your professional, you have very little. And if he or she doesn’t communicate well with you, how well do you think they’re doing with the other side?

As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to thank all the meaningful people in my little legal universe. From my law partner of 25 years, to our fantastic and dedicated staff, to our loyal clients and former clients who refer me so much business, thank you. To my friends who have helped me through a tough year with Mom’s illness, an office move after so many years in the same place, helped me Chair a huge and successful charitable event, thank you. To my web guy, Igor Bubis who has optimized my website and quite literally put me on the internet map with my website, my Facebook presence and my weekly blog, thanks! In less than one year I have gotten more new business than I ever would have thought.

I’ll bet you have as many people to be thankful for as well. Don’t let this Thanksgiving go without acknowledging all things big-and-small your friends, family and colleagues have shown to you. And be happy for a time. Happiness is not a permanent state (as I’ve discussed with my good friend, Paul), but periodically it’s good to reflect, take a moment and be happy.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The post The Happy, Thankful Lawyer appeared first on Blenner Law Group.

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 in a child that young, “Molly” had two prominent unhealed wounds underneath each eye. When her mother tilted her head back, I could see two more prominent unhealed wounds to the jaw line underneath her chin.

The wounds underneath Molly’s eyes represented where the canine teeth punctured her skin from the upper jaw of a dog. The wounds under her chin were from the bottom incisors of the dog. This dog essentially enveloped her face with his mouth as if he was swallowing her whole.

She also had two black eyes and a whole host of canine teeth abrasions all up and down her face.

A few days earlier, Molly and Mom were at their favorite park in New Port Richey when Molly spotted a pretty dog sitting dutifully next to his owner.  The dog was exactly Molly’s height. As she ran up to the mid-sized dog, she slowed, looked at the dog owner who seemed to encourage Molly to pet the dog which appeared well behaved and on a leash.

Whatever happened from here on is still a mystery. For some reason the dog detected this 5 year old as some threat and bit her on the face and held on tight. Horrified, the dog owner immediately got the dog to release this child, but by that time the damage had already been done.

The degree of significant mental trauma aside, the physical damage to this little girl was obvious. Lacerations and bruising were temporary and topical, but it was the puncture wounds that caused the biggest future concern. The wounds under the eyes would scar and as Molly grew the symmetrical scarring would as well.

Of course, it could have been much worse for Molly – we’ve all heard the horror stories. We were able to negotiate a financial settlement with the dog owner through her homeowner’s insurance company to provide for Molly’s future plastic surgery care as she grew.  By the way, this young woman still resides in New Port Richey and is doing very well. The scarring isn’t visible to anybody but Molly and is well concealed with make-up.

But why this woman encouraged this child to approach her dog in the park is also a mystery. The dog had known violent tendencies which made this case even more aggravating for Molly’s mom and a real factor in why this case settled before trial.

But, did you know that if your dog bites someone there are almost no legal defenses? It’s a doctrine called “strict liability”: If you bring your dog into contact with the public you are assuring everyone he comes in contact with that he is not dangerous, and in fact, approachable. If a bite occurs, you are responsible. It’s just that simple.

This isn’t unusual to Florida. In fact, the owner of any dog that bites someone is liable for damages regardless of the former viciousness of the dog. F.S. 767.04. So, there is no free “first bite”. Even if your dog has been the most gentle dog in the neighborhood, if he bites, you’re responsible.

There is one exception to this: If the person provoked the dog in any way through his own negligence, the degree of negligence would reduce the percentage of responsibility of the dog owner.

And there’s even an exception to the exception! You cannot impute provocation to a child under 6. So, even if Molly hadn’t glanced at the dog owner but instead pounced on the dog “provoking” a bite, by law the dog owner is responsible for this as well.

Two ways to protect yourself: If your dog is essentially a watch dog for security and protection, erect a sign that says “Bad Dog”. It’s not fool proof but it will help. Also, make sure to check your homeowners’ insurance policy. Many insurance companies are not covering dog bites because of the exposure it presents to the company.

You won’t be too surprised to read that our New Port Richey attorneys represented many people in a certain occupation who regularly experience dog bites: Mailmen and mailwomen.  It’s almost a right of passage!

The post Dog Bites Man – Man Fights Back appeared first on Blenner Law Group.

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 with his child.

Contrast that to the young couple “in love” where the 19 year old high school graduate is recently found to be involved in a relationship with his 17 year old high school girlfriend. Her parents are furious, the police are contacted, but no arrest is made.

Why? Because Florida Statute 794.05 states: “A person 24 years of age or older who engages in sexual activity with a person who is 16 or 17 years of age commits a felony of the second degree….”

So, this 30 year old woman in New Port Richey has missed the mark by six years. Had she been 24 years of age or younger when this was discovered, there would be no arrest.

The age of consent in Florida is 18 years of age. Ordinarily sexual activity with anyone under 18 is statutory rape since minors cannot legally “consent” to sexual activity. It is rape as defined by statute.

Many states saw the unintended results of this harsh law with boyfriends and girlfriends getting arrested at 17, 18 and 19 which can be life altering in terms of their record. An arrest may affect their employability, their ability to get into the military and to qualify for certain jobs. They may be labeled as “sexual predators” which comes with terrible consequences. These youthful indiscretions are becoming more common and states, like Florida, made a public policy decision not to punish young adults for sexual activity which is trending younger and younger.

However, the more one grows into adulthood, the less tolerant the law becomes. Starting at age 25, one is presumed to know the inappropriateness of a sexual relationship with, basically, a child making adult decisions.  Many might argue protection of adults up to 24 years old is too lenient, but that’s a legislative argument.

This is such a delicate subject, but I think most can agree that there is a difference between two 17 year olds who make adult decisions while still being children, and a 30 year old New Port Richey woman living with a 17 year old.  At some point, it just becomes creepy.

The post The Very Serious Subject of “Statutory Rape” in Florida appeared first on Blenner Law Group.

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 lawyer and then hold the homeowner responsible for their injury.

You may have heard of this one – some guy breaks into a house in Palm Harbor** and steals stuff, tries to escape through the garage to discover that he can’t navigate the confines of the garage and can’t get back into the house which now locked behind him. Since the homeowners were away for a week on vacation, the burglar is stuck in there and must live on dry dog food and windshield wiper fluid. When he finally gets out he hires a lawyer to sue the homeowner and the jury awards him a gajillion dollars on some flimsy charge.

Of course, if you parse some of these cases, these stories just don’t hold up to any kind of rational thought. So this guy could break into a house but couldn’t get out of a residential garage? He couldn’t re-break into the same house he just burgled? Reputable burglars have been known to break out of actual jails, much less a garage. The fact that he didn’t sustain any injury and was in the commission of a crime didn’t deter some lawyer from taking this case who was then able to convince a jury to give him a huge award. Now, come on. People who believe this stuff want to believe it’s true.  It’s all a fairly transparent attempt to make lawyers look bad.

Now, don’t get me wrong: there are lawyers in big cities, medium towns and probably even Palm Harbor who have filed a lawsuit that relied on the credibility of their client alone. However, there are legal devices that make filing frivolous lawsuits dangerous to both client and lawyer alike. Florida Statute 57.105 states that if a lawsuit is dismissed because it lacks “any justiciable issue of law or fact”, in other words, it’s unproved and improvable, not only might the Plaintiff be responsible to pay attorney’s fees to defend the case, but the Plaintiff’s lawyer might also be responsible to kick in for those fees. A client who makes up falsehoods as the basis of litigation is bad, but when an attorney fails to insure that the case has some basis in fact and files suit anyway, is just as bad.

We are fortunate in our local legal community of Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Oldsmar and New Port Richey in that we have very ethical lawyers and law firms that very much respect each other and our court system. Stories of local Palm Harbor lawyers filing lawsuits with no merit are few and far between.  So, next time you hear a story of one of these tall tale legal victories, think if you were on that jury if you’d be so inclined to reward that Plaintiff.  If not, there’s a good chance it is either a completely fabricated story, or else the truth of the case has been mischaracterized to the extent that it no longer bears any resemblance to the actual fact pattern of the case.

**These stories always get personalized to the speaker’s home town. This scenario never happened in Palm Harbor or anywhere else for that matter.

The post Lawyers & Frivolous Lawsuits appeared first on Blenner Law Group.

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 in part. The damage can be fairly indiscriminate.

If you think I’m being dramatic, in Guatemala just two years ago a sinkhole opened in an instant swallowing a dozen houses and killing 3 people who were found 330 feet below in a river of underground sewage. That’s about the depth of a 30 story building.

Large cities are more susceptible to sinkhole activity because of massive urbanization, lots of dirt disruption from digging, more water usage and sewer flow. Tampa is very vulnerable due to explosive growth in the last twenty years.

But, of all of Tampa Bay, Pasco County and those living in New Port Richey, Trinity, Hudson and Holiday are in a particularly precarious position. A home in Pasco is three times more likely to be damaged by a sinkhole than by fire. And keep in mind, most fires can be prevented. Not so with sinkholes.

Given that most Americans’ single largest asset is their home, the damage from a sinkhole is usually devastating. Lawyers have been enormously successful in assisting clients with keeping their homeowners’ insurance “honest” by getting involved at the beginning of the remediation process of filling the sinkhole, stabilizing the house and then repairing it. There are lots of areas where insurance companies attempt to cut corners to save on costs in either the stabilization process or in fixing the house. A good lawyer will be involved in every step of the process to insure that does not happen. And if the insurance company botches the fix your lawyer will fight to have them buy your home so you can walk away.

By the way, did you know that many of our lakes are remnants of sinkholes? As new communities arise in Trinity and New Port Richey, all that land disruption can result in an accidental aesthetic during the building process – a new sinkhole that eventually fills up with water from a nearby water table and becomes a new lake. It may be less land for a developer to build upon, but now he can sell his units as “waterfront”. From lemons to lemonade in two short steps!

Why has Pasco and New Port Richey, specifically, been so cursed with sinkholes? Simple geography. Geologists tell us that lots of Pasco County is covered with a relatively thin layer of sand and clay over a limestone bedrock. As the rains come and dump inches of water into the aquifer, it becomes more acidic as it sinks eating away at the limestone over the years. When the limestone has eroded mostly away, the sand and clay covering collapses, unearthing a large gaping hole.

This predicable occurrence in an already overbuilt area has kept attorneys who specialize in sinkhole litigation quite busy. If you think you heard more about sinkholes in Trinity and New Port Richey a few years ago and maybe a bit less now, the reason may be the tanking of the economy in 2008 that all but ended new construction which put a halt on digging and land interruption.

But to the residents of New Port Richey, Trinity, Holiday and Hudson, remain vigilant. Being in your home for twenty years does not guarantee that you’re not sitting atop an acidic aquifer, an eroding limestone bedrock and thinning sand and soil. If you find yourself with a home cracking apart and sinking into green earth, there are many attorneys and law firms that can help you out of this proverbial and literal hole in the ground.

**The title of this piece was coined by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, a/k/a Swiftmud regarding New Port Richey, Pasco County and Florida, in general

The post The Land of Sunshine, Beautiful Beaches and Sinkholes appeared first on Blenner Law Group.