As our Miami personal injury attorneys know, there are many instances in which persons with a duty of care to others breach this duty and cause injury to innocent people. In these cases, the affected persons may have grounds to seek compensation for medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering. Depending on the underlying circumstances, there could be numerous liable individuals and entities, and in cases of serious injury, it’s important to thoroughly explore those.
Here, we take a look at some of the most common personal injuries reported on New Year’s Eve, and some of the ways you can help to avoid it.
Eye injuries. Specifically, we’re talking about eye injuries caused by popping champagne corks. This is much more common than you might think. According to the American Academy of Opthalmology, a champagne cork can rocket out of the bottle at speeds of 50 mph. A cork may not seem like a dangerous projectile, but at that speed, it can break glass. If it hits an eye, it can cause serious injury, including loss of sight. The academy recommends chilling the champagne to 45 degrees (bubbles in the bottle will expand at warmer temperatures). Avoid shaking, rattling or pointing the bottle at anyone. Shaking the bottle increases the pressure inside, and will increase the force. Aiming it at someone intentionally could result in serious injury. Keep the cork under control after tearing the foil by holding it down with the palm of your hand while removing the wire. Don’t ever use a corkscrew. Smother the entire top with a towel, point the bottle at a 45-degree angle away from you and others and slowly twist the bottle at the base while holding the cork (not visa versa) to break the seal.
Gunfire. In this case, we’re talking about celebratory gunfire. Generally, it’s not a good idea to fire a gun without aim. Yet for some reason, people seem to want to do this on New Year’s Eve. A bullet that is shot up into the air will travel upward for two miles before falling back to earth at a rate of between 300 and 700 feet per second. That’s fast enough to kill you, reports the Los Angeles Police Department. Stray bullets kill dozens of people on New Year’s annually. The bottom line here: Don’t do it. Not only is it illegal, it could be deadly.
Drunk driving. This is the big one on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. This action kills more than 10,000 people in the U.S. every year, and no one day more so than New Year’s Day, just after midnight. This one is easy too: Make sure you have a designated sober driver or an Uber. Stay vigilant on the roads, don’t let others drive drunk and report any drivers you believe may be intoxicated.
Fireworks. An estimated 11,000 people are injured each year by fireworks. Many people on New Year’s Eve like to set these off, but are often intoxicated when they do so. When it comes to pyrotechnics, it’s best to let a professional handle them. However, if you do get fireworks, do so while sober, keep them away from children and don’t try to make your own.
Unsafe intoxication. Drinking and New Year’s celebrations go hand-in-hand, quite often. However, many people don’t realize that even just a few drinks over your personal limit can have serious consequences. Alcohol poisoning has the potential to kill you. Pace yourself. Don’t consume drinks given to you by strangers and drink plenty of water too.
If you suffer a personal injury on New Year’s Eve in Miami, our dedicated legal team will help you determine whether you may be entitled to damages.
If you have been injured in Miami, call Chalik & Chalik at (954) 476-1000 or 1 (800) 873-9040.
Additional Resources:
4 Ways People Get Hurt on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 30, 2014, By Justin Worland, Time
More Blog Entries:
Patchett v. Lee – Collateral Source Rule Weighed, Nov. 10, 2016, Miami Injury Attorney Blog
The post Avoid Getting Injured on New Year’s Eve first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>First, a couple of definitions: A “complex trust” is a trust that either retains current income in the trust, distributes trust principal, or has a charitable organization as a beneficiary. A “simple trust” is a trust that is required to distribute all of its annual income to the beneficiaries, but no principal may be distributed. Income of the trust is taxable to the recipient.
Trusts pay the highest federal income tax rate of 39.6% at a much lower threshold than individuals (at $12,400 as opposed to $415,050 for a single individual in 2016). Most trust beneficiaries have a lower tax rate than the trust; therefore, income that is distributed to the beneficiaries (which is then taxed to the beneficiaries instead of to the trust) ultimately results in a tax savings between the trust and the beneficiaries.
To manage the tax burden of a complex trust, trustees can use the “65-Day Rule” (also called a 663(b) election) to make distributions to trust beneficiaries for the first 65 days of a calendar year. The 65-Day Rule applies only to complex trusts, because by definition, a simple trust’s income is already taxed to the beneficiary at the beneficiary’s presumably lower tax rate.
If after the beginning of the New Year, the trustee realizes that there is excess income remaining after accounting for distributions made in the preceding year, the 65-Day Rule allows the trustee to treat distributions made within the first 65 days of the New Year as if the distributions were made in the preceding year. This means that trust distributions made through Monday, March 6, 2017 may be treated as having been made in 2016.
In order to use the 65-Day Rule, the trustee must make the 663(b) election on page two of IRS Form 1041, the trust’s income tax return. If the trustee makes this election, he should keep careful records to ensure that the tax return for the following year does not errantly treat those distributions as distributions made in the following tax year, as well.
Ask Kit Kat – Canine Cancer Research
Hook Law Center: Kit Kat, what can you tell us about how dogs are used in cancer research, and how this benefits humans.
Kit Kat: Well, this is very interesting and inspiring. Veterinary scientists did not start out treating dogs for cancer to only benefit humans. In fact, most cancer treatments for dogs were first developed for humans. However, what was discovered was that dogs’ and humans’ biological systems were more alike than previously thought. So, it really didn’t make sense to restrict trials for new medications to mice, who usually don’t get cancer. To conduct cancer trials on mice, the cancer has to be induced, while both dogs and humans get similar cancers without such effort.
So some veterinary schools are leading the way in research with dogs, that just so happens to benefit humans. Take, for example, the case of Flyer, 70-pound golden retriever who had osteosarcoma in one her legs. The leg was amputated, and she underwent chemotherapy. Now she is being followed via chest x-rays at the University of Pennsylvania’s Ryan Veterinary Hospital to see if the cancer has reappeared in her lungs, a frequent complication. As a precaution, because many dogs with osteosarcoma die within a year of cancer reappearing in their lungs, Flyer was given an experimental vaccine to ward off cancer’s return. Flyer has to frequently return for x-rays to monitor her progress. The course of treatment was 3 intravenous doses, and it has worked thus far—she remains cancer-free. Researchers are hoping to adapt the vaccines used for dogs to humans, especially children, who develop osteosarcoma at a higher rate than adults. It looks promising. According to Nicola Mason, a veterinarian and immunologist at Penn’s Veterinary School, ‘Where dogs really stand out is in the way they generate tumors and react to treatments, which is a lot like people.’
Across the country, medical and veterinary school are collaborating on research and treatment for this and other cancers such as lymphoma, melanoma, brain and bladder cancer. Pharmaceutical companies, in some cases, like to start studying a new treatment on a dog. If the results are promising, they then move on to adapting it for humans. Everyone should be grateful to these patient canines who are better suited overall to being research subjects than we cats. Cats tend to become stressed in research settings. However, there is one bright spot for cats—cats are used in studies about oral cancer and breast cancer. In these 2 particular types of cancer, cats’ cancer is very similar to the human version.
In short, we dogs and cats are are doing our best to help our human caretakers stay healthy. We all want to live as long as possible! (Laurie McGinley, “New tricks in canine cancer research may improve treatments for humans, too,” The Washington Post, Health & Science, November 26, 2016)
Distribution of This Newsletter
Hook Law Center encourages you to share this newsletter with anyone who is interested in issues pertaining to the elderly, the disabled and their advocates. The information in this newsletter may be copied and distributed, without charge and without permission, but with appropriate citation to Hook Law Center, P.C. If you are interested in a free subscription to the Hook Law Center News, then please telephone us at 757-399-7506, e-mail us at mail@hooklawcenter.com or fax us at 757-397-1267.The post The 65-Day Rule: What Every Trustee Should Know about Taxes first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>
I am sure you have heard the cliché “If you don’t lose it, you’ll lose it”. That is especially true when it comes to older adults. As an older adult it is vital that you get some sort of daily exercise to maintain good health.
The only problem is that most people get tired just hearing the word exercise but before you it out consider this. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve health benefits.” CDC.gov also says exercise “Helps maintain the ability to live independently and reduces the risk of falling and fracturing bones.”
Obvious examples of this are short walks around the neighborhood or participating in a chair exercise program. But similar benefits can also be gained from an increase in leisure activity that could make getting some exercise a little more fun. Of course, you should always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
Most communities have recreation programs that focus on seniors. Your insurance provider may also sponsor activities in your area.
These groups offer weekly and daily activities that help older folks get some physical activity in a fun way. Most programs also offer transportation to seniors who need it.
Getting some exercise is important but having fun is just as beneficial. In fact participating in recreation activities can provide even more benefit that just exercise alone. The National Institute of Health links leisure activity to successful aging because leisure activities “offer a context in which older adults can improve their physical functions, enhance positive feelings and emotions, and promote social interactions.”
Simply put an active leisure lifestyle is not only fun but its healthy too. When you are making your resolutions for the New Year, consider resolving to have a little fun this next year. Your body, mind and spirit will thank you for it.
Make sure to subscribe to our website for more information on successful aging. For more articles by Anthony Fischer visit www.elderadvocacygroup.info.
The post Staying Active Is An Important Part Of Healthy Aging appeared first on Michigan Estate Planning.
The post Staying Active Is An Important Part Of Healthy Aging first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>
According to divorce trends in recent years, March has earned the nickname of “Divorce Month.”
December has historically had a lower number of divorce filings. Although couples may be thinking about divorce, they are often reluctant to break up during Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas or New Year, because they want to avoid additional stress during the already stressful holiday season. In addition, couples with children may choose to have one last holiday together as a family.
Divorce is painful and traumatic any time of the year that you file, but for divorcing parents it is generally a good idea not to disrupt the holiday season as children are likely to feel the impact of the split much more during that time. Also, you do not want to create a memory for your children that you filed for divorce around Christmas-time, a sad reminder that they will recall for the rest of their lives.
The start of the New Year is generally considered the busiest time for divorces. However, research by FindLaw.com in 2012 indicated the overall divorce rate starts to surge starting in January until it peaks in late March. The legal information website collaborated with research service Westlaw to analyze divorce filings across the nation from 2008 to 2011. They also found that Internet searches for divorce-related information increased 50 percent from December through March.
Financial factors such as income tax and yearend bonuses can also affect the timing of a divorce. A person’s marital status as of the end of the year determines whether they will file joint taxes or an individual return for the past year. Separating couples also tend to decide their approach to the divorce — whether it is litigation or mediation — during the three-month period after December.
Besides family dynamics, finances also come into play in divorces. The holiday season can be an especially expensive time of year with Christmas shopping. So it is important to note that in contrast to a traditional litigated divorce, mediation can drastically reduce costs for couples who can work through their issues together in a conflict-free setting.
Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.
Toward the end of the year, many publications offer tips on how to survive the holiday season as divorced parents. Although such annual articles provide useful advice on holiday arrangements for children, divorcing parents should aim to develop effective co-parenting strategies that extend all year long.
The holiday season is a major, emotional period of the year, but it is important to remember that co-parenting should sustain beyond Thanksgiving or Christmas. Communication between both parents is the key to successful co-parenting. Just like during Christmas or New Year’s, children should regularly have the opportunity to spend quality time with both parents. For example, working together to set a schedule with consistent drop off and pick up times will help kids feel more secure.
Divorce is a stressful process that can make it challenging for even well-meaning parents to cooperate. However, divorced spouses must set aside any feelings of bitterness or anger in order to develop a co-parenting plan that meets the needs of their children. Modeling respect, cooperation and polite behavior sets a positive tone for co-parenting. When children see their parents getting along, they are more likely to adjust easily to divorce.
Additionally, co-parenting plans should be geared toward the age of the child. Younger children need reassurance that they have two parents who love them no matter what. On the other hand, teens might require more flexibility and freedom in their schedules to accommodate their many activities. For some divorced spouses, even thinking of their co-parent might be painful. However, it is important to compartmentalize such feelings and commit to communicating with your ex for the benefit of your child. Co-parenting ensures that children share a close bond with both parents.
Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.
Auto accidents can be financially, emotionally and physically devastating, especially during the holidays. Fortunately, it is easy to reduce the risk of being involved in a crash.
- Stay off the road after 1:00 a.m. Most drunk driving accidents occur between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Even if most people drive sober, inevitably, some will not. Keep loved ones off the roads in the early morning hours as much as possible.
- Get some sleep. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that cutting sleep short by even two or three hours can make an accident up to four times more likely. Anyone who is hung over or sleepy should stay out of the driver’s seat on New Year’s Day or the day after Christmas.
- Talk to young people. According to the CDC, a staggering 32 percent of fatal alcohol-related crashes involve a driver between the ages of 21 and 24. Know a young person coming home for the holidays? Let them know how much they are loved, and warn them about the risks of impaired driving.
- Get the car checked. Around the holidays, the National Safety Council recommends a full inspection and tune up to ensure optimal brake and acceleration response times. Temperature changes and extreme temperatures can cause mechanical problems. In addition, make sure the car has a spare tire, jumper cables and a first aid kit.
Remember that no-refusal DWI checkpoints may be in effect. The Dallas police have made a habit of setting up mandatory sobriety checkpoints around the holidays. Anyone who refuses to take a breathalyzer or blood test may be arrested and taken to jail for a forced sample collection. Avoid the drama and make sure your driver has had absolutely nothing to drink.
At The Hale Law Firm, we have helped thousands of clients successfully prosecute their personal injury claims including auto accidents, wrongful death, dangerous products, brain injuries, burn injuries, and defective medical devices. Clients depend on their personal injury lawyers for guidance and legal advice across a broad range of personal injury accidents. To learn more, visit http://www.hale911.com/ or call 972.351.0000.
The post Texan Government and Legal Professionals Offer Tips for Safe and Happy Driving This Holiday Season first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>The government permits an annual exclusion amount, currently set at $14,000 per year. That sum is not subject to either reporting or taxation. And that figure can effectively be doubled through the procedure known as gift-splitting, whereby each spouse exercises the annual exclusion and sends a combined $28,000 tax-free gift to a child.
The gift-splitting provision can be especially useful when a couple wants to help their married child with a big-ticket item (such as the down payment for a house). If the gifts are properly timed, a respectable sum can be transferred tax-free in short order.
For example, a couple using the gift-splitting provision could give $28,000 to a married child and another $28,0000 to that child’s spouse during Christmas week. Then, they would repeat the process during the following New Year’s week. Within the two holiday weeks, the younger couple would have amassed $112,000 tax free. If parents take this route, they better be sure they like their son-in-law!
The annual exclusion gift is not limited to use for parent-to-child transfers. Indeed, anyone is entitled to give anyone else — relatives, friends or even total strangers — the annual exclusion gift. In addition, the annual exclusion gift is not considered part of a person’s $5.3 million exemption from the estate tax.
Yearly gifts larger than $14,000 are not likely to result in gift tax exposure, but they must be reported to the IRS.
While most gifts take the form of cash, neither the gift nor the annual exclusion must be in that form. Gift-givers can transfer a massive variety of assets, including artwork, boats, businesses, family heirlooms, homes, stocks and bonds. When a gift is anything other than cash, the government requires appraisal. The assets are best held in a revocable trust in which ownership stakes are recorded and maintained.
Whenever asset transfers are contemplated, the advice of an experienced estate-planning attorney is simply essential. There are smart, protective ways to give gifts. Too often, mistakes and unpleasant surprises result from more casual approaches.
Pioneers of Elder Law – For over 30 years, Gilfix & La Poll Associates LLP has innovated creative legal solutions to help you manage and plan the future of your estate.
To contact an estate planning lawyer visit http://www.gilfix.com/ or call 800.244.9424.
In January, 2010, Veronica’s birth mother, Christina Maldonado, learned she was pregnant. She was engaged to the father, Dusten Brown, but later called off the marriage. In a text message, Brown told Maldonado he would not pay child support and would rather give up his parental rights. Maldonado decided she would put the baby up for adoption.
Melanie and Matt Capobianco, a married South Carolina couple, were unable to conceive a child. They met Maldonado through an adoption agency while she was still pregnant. They helped her with medical expenses and were present during her delivery. They named the baby Veronica and brought her to their Charleston home while the legalities of the adoption proceeded.
When Brown heard that his daughter had been placed for adoption, he immediately filed suit to halt the adoption, citing the Indian Child Welfare Act. The ICWA is a 1978 federal law that places tough restrictions on ending an Indian’s parental rights in order to discourage those not in the tribe from adopting Indian children. It was created to end what lawmakers saw as a practice of improper removal of Indian children from their families.
The South Carolina Supreme Court granted Brown custody of Veronica, and on New Year’s Eve, 2011, the Capobianco’s handed her over, aged 27 months. Since then, she has lived with Brown and his new wife in Oklahoma.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the ICWA does not require granting Brown custody. Concurring, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the constitutionality of the law, although the ruling does not strike it down.
“Nothing in the Indian Commerce Clause permits Congress to enact special laws applicable to [Brown] merely because of his status as an Indian,” Thomas wrote. “Because adoption proceedings like this one involve neither ‘commerce’ nor ‘Indian tribes,’ there is simply no constitutional basis for Congress’ assertion of authority over such proceedings.”
Dissenting, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority ignored the intent of the ICWA, which was to discourage adoptions outside tribes.
“The majority may consider this scheme unwise,” Sotomayor wrote. “But no principle of construction licenses a court to interpret a statute with a view to averting the very consequences Congress expressly stated it was trying to bring about.”
Now, South Carolina judges will continue to decide the fate of a little girl who has already left one home and will likely soon leave another.
Joshua Law is a divorce attorney and Brandon family law lawyer with the Osenton Law Offices, P.A. To learn more, visit http://www.brandonlawoffice.com/
The post Supreme Court Rules for Adoptive Couple in ‘Baby Veronica’ Case first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>She and everyone that knows her can agree that she is so far from perfect. If a sign points to go one direction, she would go the other. This is not just pure rebellion, but total ignorance for not looking up at her surroundings, never noticing the way long weeds bend toward the breeze.
But this year is different. Her 2011 Zodiac yearly astrology forecast says she is bound for a bizarre year. Instead of fretting over the future, she called Matt Lockhard, a California independent health insurance agent that she just took out health insurance from, for his predictions. “I predict you will be protected in case you fall ill, or break a bone, or get trampled by Harry Potter fanatics, because you are insured now,” Matt said.
This year she will acknowledge all her imperfections and she will have a New Year’s Un-Resolution as she wrote her top 10 list:
1) I will decide not to try to be on time for anything
2) I will continue to mispronounce “documentary” as “Doc-you-men-TARY”
3) I will continue to eat carbs
4) I will weigh myself morning, noon or night, and accept the fact that I will always weigh less in the morning
5) I will never publish my great American novel and I will never win a Pulitzer prize
6) I am finally resolved that I will never win Powerball
7) That luck will continue to not happen to unlucky people
8) And that the power of The Secret is a farce
9) I will starve myself until I pass out to see if I can weigh less than 140 lbs. in my lifetime
10) I will continue to contribute to the total destruction of earth by participating in mass consumption, mass pollution and mass annihilation
And so she kept this list in her journal so that she could keep referring to it just in case she ever felt like she was even closely perfect or somewhat significant for a minute second.
Hillary also decided to blog her list with others on the Internet. To Hillary’s surprise, it grew into a massive movement. This movement finally prompted her to pen her novel and win the Pulitzer Prize, which resulted the power of The Secret to kick in, and she became a very lucky person to where she won the Powerball not just once, but twice!
She was able to afford a gourmet health-food chef and a personal trainer and she finally weighed below 140. With all that has happened to her, she finally felt good and so assured of herself that she set up organizations that helped address the world’s limited resources by investing heavily in alternative energy. She went on to establishing other organizations to help aid over-consumption and pollution, along with humanitarian organizations that helped the needy and the oppressed.
“With my un-resolution story, I impart you the greatness it bestowed upon my life,” she said to Matt, the independent California health insurance agent. “Thanks for keeping me covered throughout it all!”
Matt Lockard – California Health Insurance agency offers health insurance plans for individuals, families, and children. Also available are California Medicare Supplement policies. Go to http://mattsinsurance4ca.com to get an instant health insurance quote.
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