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There’s been abundant rhetoric about the necessity for immigration reform. But according to Houston-area immigration lawyer Annie Banerjee, now may not be the time.

On June 10, 2010, the “one-party” Health Care Bill was signed into law after being passed by the Democrats. While President Obama’s determined attempt to achieve legislative success in a bipartisan manner is perhaps laudable and worthy of historic kudos, according to Annie Banerjee, a Houston-area immigration lawyer, it might have been “more strategically prudent” to concede to Republican demands.

“He refused to compromise with the Republicans, courted the Democrats, and rammed a bill down the throats of an unwilling population,” asserts Banerjee, “That is not democracy. What will happen to that Health Care Bill is that Republicans will file a court challenge to it. The conservative Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional. In the meantime, in October the makeup of the Senate and House will change and the health care issue will die.”

Despite her misgivings regarding the fate of the health bill, Banerjee is of the opinion that immigration reform can be bipartisan.

“There were at least two bills jointly put forward by a Republican and a Democrat,” Banerjee explained, “Former President Bush wanted immigration reform as much as President Obama does. Yet the parameters are different for different parties. The Democrats want to legalize the undocumented aliens who are illegally here. They do mainly manual jobs, work hard, and are necessary for the country. However the Democrats frown upon the intellectual jobs being done by mostly Indian and Chinese professionals, who are here legally on H-1B visas, giving into protectionist labor organizations. The H-1B visas have been attacked ever since Mr. Obama took office. First there were the workplace raids, whose main purpose was to see if businesses were following the letter of the law minutely. Then came the January 08 memo, which virtually ended consulting companies (mainly IT companies) ability to hire foreign nationals on H-1B. These people are legal, have valid visas and work in professional jobs. They too are necessary for the American economy. American colleges do not generate a high volume of computer professionals necessary to keep American businesses going. The Republicans support these work visas, the Democrats don’t.”

Banerjee concludes only the obvious: That immigration reform must be comprehensive. “Just as the Health Care Bill did not include provisions to curb tort lawyers, an immigration bill which only addresses the illegal immigrants supplying manual labor and not the legal immigrants supplying intellectual labor is simply unacceptable.”

To learn more, visit http://www.visatous.com.

These days creativity in perpetrating a fraud seems to be on the rise. Who would have thought that there was a way to scam people with a cell phone card?

Those prepaid cell phone cards are a real boon to people who like to pay as they go, not thinking that full regular service is really necessary or worth the expense. Cell phone users just shell out the amount they want to pay and get on with their lives and making their calls. Depending on the cost of the card, it will provide a user with a variety of choices for time limits.

As the cell phone is used, the minutes are reduced until the card is done. So far, so good. This is a useful service for many people and the way to really save money with these cards is to compare the per-minute rate and also the other charges and fees. This is where things start to get a tad murky. The other charges and fees add up and may mean you’re paying for things you do not need to be paying for in the first place.

The deal is usually that the card company promotes the fact they have one of the lowest costs per call and are happy to help customers save money. This isn’t always the case, and these “less than honest” providers usually have many hidden charges and fees. When your cell phone is activated, a customer starts paying a large fee to keep that account active. Usually called monthly maintenance fees, these may cost anywhere from less than a dollar to up to five dollars.

While that does not add a substantial amount to the card, some of the other practices calling card providers charge, do add up. For instance, there are a plethora of different fees charged to a user for making international phone calls. Some providers will even charge for not only using the prepaid card on a cell phone, but also charge to use it on a pay phone.

For people who buy prepaid cards for their cell phones before they go on holidays, hoping to save a few bucks here and there, they are in for a surprise. Most people are not aware that every time they use their prepaid card on a cell phone, they are incurring extra charges.

If that isn’t bad enough, some prepaid calling card companies will charge a customer to start a call and to end a call. The size of that phone bill would be phenomenal when all those extra, hidden charges are added on. It’s no wonder prepaid calling cards don’t last as long as one thinks they should.

If faced with a suspected case of phone card fraud, approach the company first. If that does not work, then contact the International Prepaid Communications Association hotline and complain. If that fails, contact a local district attorney’s office and ask for the fraud unit. Before buying any prepaid phone card, carefully research all the terms, charges and fees.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

White-collar crime is interesting, as it covers such a wide variety of crimes, for instance counterfeiting products.

The other term often used for counterfeit products is “pirated” and it refers to products that have been illegally made and are being sold. These knock-offs or bootlegged goods are often regarded as being a great way to save money and really, no one is hurt in the process.

While it is a great way to save money, rather than buy the original, it is definitely infringing on intellectual property rights. It’s not just selling goods in violation of a copyright either, it is selling goods that specifically imply they are original quality and are authentic when they are not.

Counterfeiting has an interesting history. It was once referred to as palming off under English common law, meaning the counterfeiter palmed off a fake as being genuine. In doing this, the fraudster was horning in on the established reputation and goodwill of the original creator.

Many people still refer to counterfeiting as trademark infringement, and while that may be a valid observation, it also refers to all intellectual property rights violations – trade secrets, copyright and patents, etc. Certainly it is regarded as being a devastating crime when perpetrated on a large scale that results in significant financial losses to the creator of the original work, etc.

It’s not just the loss of money that accrues to the original creator of a product that is at issue. The other serious problem that may arise from making and selling counterfeit products is their standard of quality. Consumers buying these sub-standard products may find they bought more than they bargained for if a certain item is defective and an accident is the result.

Having said that, this is a crime and is one where those charged must be accorded the right of a thorough criminal defense. Being charged with counterfeiting does not mean that the person charged was the person responsible for the scam or they were even aware of what they were doing. It’s all in the details of the case, and until all the details are known and the defense heard, judgment needs to be kept in abeyance.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

If you’re on a roll and have more than one DWI offense in Texas, things aren’t looking so good for you legally. Make sure you contact a criminal defense lawyer to deal with this kind of a situation.

One of the first things you need to know is that Texas has one of the highest DWI rates in the country, which is not something lawmakers are wildly crazy about. This means the laws dealing with repeat offenders tend to be fairly tough and no nonsense in nature. In cases where you have been charged with a repeat offense, immediately call a lawyer with DWI experience.

If you do happen to be convicted, and this is one of the reasons you want a top-notch DWI attorney on your side - to mitigate penalties, be prepared to be assessed for dependency on drugs or alcohol. If you made the smart move when you were arrested and charged for the second time, your DWI attorney will have a good chance to make a difference in the outcome of your case.

Make sure you do not speak to anyone else but your attorney and keep all the details to yourself. It won’t help your case in the least if you choose to share these things with the police, nor would it help you later if you appear in court. In some instances, depending on the details of your case, you may find you will be required to complete a DWI education course.

If you are convicted of a second DWI, you must spend some time in jail. Once again however, if you hired a knowledgeable DWI attorney, you may find the outcome of your charges are entirely different.

Yes, you may also face license suspension, but you do have the opportunity to apply for an occupational license that lets you get to work or school. Of course, whether or not this happens also tends to depend on what kind of driving record and/or rate of convictions for DWI you may have.

If you are arrested for drunk driving for a second time, make your first call to a qualified DWI attorney and then wait for him or her to arrive. Only speak to them and let them handle the details. It’s entirely possible they may be able to have your charges dismissed or reduced.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

It’s interesting that people who commit health care fraud think they are doing nothing wrong and that those big companies have lots of money and won’t miss any.

While it’s an interesting attitude, to rip off a larger corporation for money that people don’t think they need, it is indeed hurting people. After all, it’s not just the companies that are getting ripped off; it’s the people who these large corporations ultimately serve that are also getting the short end of the stick.

Insurance scams in the US alone run a tab of roughly $80 billion a year. Eighty billion is not exactly chump change to anyone. Even if this figure is whittled down to what this costs per individual served by an insurance company, the figure is still relatively high, coming in at about $880 per person.

The funny thing is, those who are ripping off the system for extra money, are also scamming themselves as well. So, while they may think they are getting away with something smart and profitable, it often works out that isn’t the case. It certainly isn’t the case when they inevitably get caught either.

Unfortunately, due to rapid advancements in technology, insurance frauds are getting harder and harder to catch. This may be a boon to those who perpetrate this type of crime, but be forewarned that methods to track this type of fraud are also growing by leaps and bounds.

The most common type of insurance fraud is found in the health care system and that comes with a tab of about $30 billion a year. In this area there are provider fraud and member fraud. Let’s take a quick look at what member fraud may involve. This would be when you choose to deceive your insurance company by not declaring something in order to get treatment. Provider fraud is if a doctor or another health professional bills for a service they did not provide.

The bottom line here is that insurance fraud is illegal and the penalties tend to be stiff when someone is caught and convicted of this crime. However, having said that, everyone, no matter what they have been accused of, is entitled to a criminal defense. Just because they may have been charged with billing for services they didn’t render does not mean they were the responsible party for doing so, nor does it mean they were aware this was happening. Beware of judging a situation before you know all the details.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

“In an interesting twist to the police being one step ahead of offenders with outstanding arrest warrants, people are now able to search online for their own active arrest warrants,” indicated Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker and Associates, of Austin, Texas, with offices in Dallas and Houston.

Being able to search online for an active arrest warrant certainly gives new meaning to the term “too much information.” Imagine finding out that the traffic ticket which was never paid way back when, went to a bench warrant. Now this could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view, as the police have the same information.

This means that if a person thinks they have an outstanding ticket and wants to deal with it and get it off his or her driving record, they need to know the status of the ticket. “Finding this out online will avoid the inevitable arrest if courthouse records are searched instead,” said Wannamaker.

There doesn’t have to be a lot of money spent to find out if there are outstanding tickets either. Many of the online search sites happen to be free, so don’t be attracted to the expensive sites that charge for searching a police site; when for zero investment, another site will provide the same information.

Taking this kind of search one step further, it is not too difficult to imagine that in the future the general public will be able to search for even more information than just online warrants. In fact, even today there are some sites that will allow people to search for arrests and convictions.

“This kind of information floating around on the Internet is a major concern to attorneys who realize this is a direct violation of a person’s right to privacy,” indicated Wannamaker. The biggest concern is that the records may not be up-to-date, and there is no guarantee of accuracy either. “It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to see what might happen if an online site has an outstanding warrant for a particular offense (say for instance, unpaid traffic tickets) but not the updated fact that the offender paid the fine two weeks ago,” explained Wannamaker.

This whole area of criminal information, charges, dispositions, etc. on the Internet is highly controversial and many attorneys would rather this kind of information be kept away from the general public who has no experience in correctly interpreting the charges or the disposition of them.

“As with anything dealing with the legal system, everything is relative to the circumstances of the case and any criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in this area will tell you a case may change on the drop of a dime,” added Wannamaker.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

There is a “regular crime” then there is an “aggravated crime,” but what does this mean in the scheme of the American justice system?

It’s a slightly simplified explanation of the differences in how a crime is charged to say there is a crime, and then an aggravated version of the same crime. This term is bandied quite often on TV when the cops and attorneys get their heads together to figure out what to charge the perpetrator with and how “aggravating” the crime was in totality.

Aggravating is living with your ex spouse, but aggravating in reference to a crime is something different. There needs to be certain factors present in order to charge a crime as an aggravated one; say aggravated assault, for instance.

“The factors that need to be present may include whether or not there was a dangerous weapon involved, if there was a threat to use a dangerous weapon, and if bodily harm was caused as a result of the crime in question, etc,” explained Daniel H. Wannamaker, board certified criminal defense attorney of Wannamaker and Associates, an Austin law firm with offices in Dallas and Houston.

“The factors are what “converts” a regular crime to an aggravated crime, and while that may sound simple enough on the surface, it rarely is,” said Wannamaker, who would definitely know what he is talking about, since he deals with many cases such as this on a regular basis. There may be the crimes of aggravated assault, aggravated battery and even aggravated murder. “Although having said that, what makes a murder an aggravated one is slightly different,” added Wannamaker.

In cases of aggravated murder, not only do the factors mentioned earlier apply, but also the key to the charge being changed from murder to aggravated murder has to do mainly with the location and situation of the murder. “The best example I can think of in this instance is the murder of an inmate by another prison inmate, while in prison. The location makes the charge aggravated murder,” explained Wannamaker.

Generally speaking most aggravated crimes tend to have higher penalties attached to them; however, each case is different and involves different factors. “If you’re in a situation where you have been charged with an aggravated crime, call me, we need to talk about your options,” said Wannamaker.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Aggravated in reference to a crime is something different. There needs to be certain factors present in order to charge a crime as an aggravated one; say aggravated assault, for instance.

“Aggravating factors that need to be present may include whether or not there was a dangerous weapon involved, if there was a threat to use a dangerous weapon, and if bodily harm was caused as a result of the crime in question, etc,” explained Daniel H. Wannamaker, board certified criminal defense attorney of Wannamaker and Associates, an Austin law firm with offices in Dallas and Houston.

“The factors are what “converts” a regular crime to an aggravated crime, and while that may sound simple enough on the surface, it rarely is,” said Wannamaker. So, there may be the crimes of aggravated assault, aggravated battery and even aggravated murder. “Although having said that, what makes a murder an aggravated one is slightly different,” added Wannamaker.

In cases of aggravated murder, the key to the charge being changed from murder to aggravated murder has to do with the location and situation of the murder. “For instance, the murder of an inmate by another inmate, while in prison. The location makes the charge aggravated murder,” explained Wannamaker.

Generally speaking, most aggravated crimes tend to have higher penalties attached to them; however, each case is different and involves different factors. “If you’re in a situation where you have been charged with an aggravated crime, call me, we need to talk about your options,” said Wannamaker.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

“In an interesting twist to the police being one step ahead of offenders with outstanding arrest warrants, people are now able to search online for their own active arrest warrants,” indicated Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker and Associates, of Austin, Texas, with offices in Dallas and Houston.

This means if a person thinks they have an outstanding ticket and wants to deal with it and get it off his or her driving record, they need to know the status of the ticket. “Finding this out online will avoid the inevitable arrest if courthouse records are searched instead,” said Wannamaker, “which is good; however, if the records are not up-to-date, that’s a problem.”

It is not too difficult to imagine that in the future the general public will be able to search for even more information than just online warrants. Even today there are some sites that will allow people to search for arrests and convictions and other information.

“Information like that floating around on the Internet is a major concern to attorneys who realize this is a direct violation of a person’s right to privacy, even if they have committed a crime and are doing or have done time for it,” indicated Wannamaker.

“It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to see what might happen if an online site has an outstanding warrant for a particular offense (say for instance, unpaid traffic tickets) but not the updated fact that the offender paid the fine two weeks ago,” said Wannamaker.

“As with anything dealing with the legal system, everything is relative to the circumstances of the case and any criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in this area will tell you a case may change on the drop of a dime,” added Wannamaker.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Generally speaking there is a difference between murder and manslaughter, but to the public it may seem there is a difference without a distinction. Legal definitions are often hard to explain to a non-lawyer.

To begin with, the most serious crime in the U.S. and other places is murder, often punishable by death or life without parole, depending on the state where the murder took place. Having said that, if a death cannot be classified as a murder it is usually considered to be a form of manslaughter and does not get the same kind of severe penalties.

“What puts murder on a different page is the mental status of the offender,” said Daniel H. Wannamaker, of Wannamaker and Associates, an Austin, Texas law firm with offices in Dallas and Houston. Legally speaking, the mental component (mental state) is referred to as premeditated malice. “You might recognize the phrase in another form often found in crime novels and termed as “malice aforethought,” added Wannamaker. If there is no premeditation prior to the commission of the crime, then the act is usually classified as another form of homicide.

There are usually exceptions to this rule and the major one would be if a death happens during the commission of another felony, e.g. an armed robbery resulting in a death. “Basically the charge of murder results from the facts of the case itself, and each case is unique,” said Wannamaker. If a person knows what the police are booking them for, this makes it easier for a skilled criminal defense attorney to start fact gathering, investigating and sorting out what happened.

How a person is charged directly relates to the facts of the particular case and how the death, if there was one, occurred. This isn’t to say that a lesser offense is “lesser” in terms of penalties or consequences; it simply means the offense is not as great as premeditated murder. “There are many distinctions to be made between murder, manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, etc.,” explained Wannamaker. Knowing these various distinctions is the attorney’s job and one they are paid well to perform.

If a murder or manslaughter charge is looming on the horizon, don’t waste time thinking about the cost of a criminal defense attorney. Call Daniel H. Wannamaker, of Wannamaker and Associates, an Austin, Texas law firm with offices in Dallas and Houston and ensure justice is served.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.