Business and Law

Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

Life Insurance (though it shouldn’t be) is to this day a very controversial issue. There seems to be a lot of different types of life insurance out there, but there are really only two kinds. They are Term Insurance and Whole Life (Cash Value) Insurance. Term Insurance is pure insurance. It protects you over a certain period of time. Whole Life Insurance is insurance plus a side account known as cash value. Generally speaking, consumer reports recommend term insurance as the most economical choice and they have for some time. But still, whole life insurance is the most prevalent in today’s society. Which one should we buy?

Let’s talk about the purpose of life insurance. Once we get the proper purpose of insurance down to a science, then everything else will fall into place. The purpose of life insurance is the same purpose as any other type of insurance. It is to “insure against loss of”. Car insurance is to insure your car or someone else’s car in case of an accident. So in other words, since you probably couldn’t pay for the damage yourself, insurance is in place. Home owners insurance is to insure against loss of your home or items in it. So since you probably couldn’t pay for a new house, you buy an insurance policy to cover it.

Life insurance is the same way. It is to insure against loss of your life. If you had a family, it would be impossible to support them after you died, so you buy life insurance so that if something were to happen to you, your family could replace your income. Life insurance is not to make you or your descendants rich or give them a reason to kill you.

Does your lawyer charge you an arm and a leg? Do you feel like you are getting the short end of the stick every time you talk to your attorney, as if he or she is holding you out for ransom, even hiding the law from you so you have to pay them more? Do you think it is a giant conspiracy at the ABA American Bar Association and the consumer, small business, or client just cannot win? If so, you may be interested in learning the reality behind it all.

So, let’s start from a free-market theory; something is only worth what someone will pay for it, and supply and demand determines the price in free markets. Thus, much of the lawyers pricing has to do with value and perception of value by you the consumer, customer, or client. There are three main items that dictate the perception of value of lawyers, practicing lawyers, which are actually working for you, not necessarily politicians which happen to have law degrees:

Quality of Service
Quality of Work
Market Going Rates

Now then, if you hire a lawyer that is expensive you assume that their quality of work is excellent, as in that is a given, but beware because that is not necessarily so. But since it is assumed, that means it is a perception. Thus, by charging more this gives the illusion of quality, since “you get what you pay for” is a common theme in capitalism and if it costs more, it must be good.

Medical malpractice is the most common legal complaint that involves hospitals and doctors. This takes place when a medical error, even the smallest or simplest one, occurs due to negligence or carelessness and results in injury, disability or fatality. It’s a popular misconception that for a medical error to be considered malpractice, death should occur. It’s not necessarily that way. If a mistake committed by a doctor or member of the medical staff results in serious injury or disability, this can also be grounds for a medical malpractice complaint.

Some of the common errors in medical malpractice include failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis of a disease, improper treatment, surgical errors, incorrect administration of anesthesia, prescription errors, and so on. If you or anyone in your family member were a victim of medical malpractice, you can file a complaint and recover for damages. Here are the steps that you need to undertake regarding this matter.

Talk to a lawyer

The first step is to find an attorney who specializes in the area of medical malpractice. Having a good lawyer by your side will help make things easier and less complicated for you. As you can probably imagine, the doctor or hospital that committed the error would do everything in its power to safeguard his/her/its reputation so you can expect that they will not be too easy in disclosing information pertinent to your case. A lawyer will help you get through this obstacle. Since most of medical malpractice cases involve lots of money, the doctor and hospital will have their malpractice defense lawyers fight arduously for the case.

Get certification of merit

Your lawyer will have a medical professional on his/her staff who will be ready for consultation regarding the details of the case. This medical professional will give a certification of merit to confirm that negligence in the medical care or treatment was present.

Notify all the parties involved

It’s not only the doctor who’s involved in the case but also the nurses and hospital (or clinic or any other medical facility). They will all be notified about the claim. They in turn will get in touch with the medical malpractice insurance providers to notify them about this. Their defense attorney will start to build defense.

File the suit

After it has been established that the case is meritorious, you and your lawyer can now work to file the case in the civil court. This will begin the legal process. The parties will have time to establish their cases and build their evidences. This will help determine the strength of the claim.

Consider settlement negotiations

Most of the cases that involve medical malpractice are settled out of the court. Since both parties are aware of the costs and risks of taking the complaint to trial, they usually agree to settle the amount out of court. If it happens that the amount of damages are not amicably agreed upon, then the plaintiff attorney will bring the case to the court.

Like legal malpractice, medical practice cases are hard and complicated. It’s best that you have a good lawyer to help you in every step of the way.

here are a myriad of things you must think about when opening any type of business whether it is a small business or a large corporation and one of those is how business law may affect you. Failure to pay attention to business and corporate law can land you in a world of trouble-both legal and financial. The good news is that you do not necessarily need to be a graduate of a fancy business law college or have a business law major to brush up on the basic ideas of small business law and corporate business law.

If you’ve paid attention to the headlines lately, you probably know that employment law for business is one of the number one areas where you can get into trouble if you aren’t up on all the employment laws and regulations. There are numerous laws that govern the employment of both regular employees and contract employees. Just for a broad overview, take a look at all the employment business laws you must meet:

· Civil Rights Act of 1966

· The Equal Pay Act of 1963

· Americans with Disabilities Act

· The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

· The Age Discrimination in Employment Act

· The Equal Employment Opportunity Act

· The Bankruptcy Act

· The Occupational Safety and Health Act

· FMLA, the Family Medical Leave Act

· Employee Polygraph Protection Act Labor Law

· FLSA, the Fair Labor Standards Act

And that’s not even counting the various state employment business laws that might apply to your business! If you aren’t sure of whether you are meeting all the regulations, it’s a good idea to get a checkup for your HR department.

Do you happen to work in the international arena? If you have anything at all to do with international business, then you should be aware of the many ways in which international business law can affect you, your business and your bottom line. At a minimum, you need to make sure that you meet general international business laws, specialized export laws, import laws and any laws of the foreign country in which your business operates.

And what about the business law scene at home? Were you aware that in addition to Federal business law and international business law, you are probably required to meet State business law regulations? Do you know whether you need a business permit or license? Failure to obtain one can result in the shutdown of your business and hefty fines and penalties. This is just one of the ways that state business law, such as California business law, can affect the health of your business if you aren’t careful to stay on top of things.

Finally, what about Internet and online business laws? Were you even aware that there was such a thing? The Internet has exploded so much in the last decade that the government has found it necessary to institute Internet compliance laws. If you operate a website of any kind and do not meet the compliance regulations, that site could be shut down and you could face criminal prosecution and hefty fines.