Posts

One transgendered Texas woman’s birth gender has come back to affect her life. Nikki Araguz became a woman and married firefighter Thomas Araguz. On July 4, he was killed in the line of duty. Now, his mother is challenging his widow’s claim to his benefits on the basis that because Nikki was born a man, their marriage is invalid. Texas law prohibits same sex marriage. Attorneys for Simona Longoria say that her son wanted to end his marriage when he found out about his wife’s original gender, according to the Associated Press....

Most plastic surgeons are competent, compassionate, and careful. And the vast majority of plastic surgeries are successful and injury-free. But, like any surgery, cosmetic operations have risks, and can go wrong. So are there procedures that are more risky than others? And if so, which plastic surgeries are the most dangerous? One of the biggest health risks from plastic surgery is nerve damage, and few places on the body have more nerve endings than the face....

Does the tragic 2010 death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau mark the end of the theme park’s famous orca stunts? The SeaWorld death not only shocked the audience on hand, it also shed light on some of the park’s safety violations. SeaWorld operates parks in Florida, Texas and California. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) filed a citation against the company after a six-month investigation into its orca program, reports the Orlando Sentinel....

Finding the right daycare for our kids can be a nerve-wracking (and possibly expensive) experience. Above all else, we want our children to be safe. But after hearing horror stories of daycare fires and even daycare fight clubs, how can you know whether a daycare is safe? Here are a few safety concerns to keep in mind: 1. See the Facility. This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many parents haven’t seen the inside of the daycare facilities their children spend so much time in....

In the aftermath of a fatal shooting, wrongful death lawsuits often follow. How do such lawsuits work, when a victim (and perhaps even the shooter) is dead? Laws in every state allow for civil wrongful-death lawsuits when a person’s death was due to the negligence or deliberate acts of another person or entity. For example, relatives of two victims in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings won $8 million in a wrongful-death suit that alleged negligence by the school....

Want to amend your trust? As a recent case out of Missouri shows, you may need a few legal tips about how to do it right. The case involved Dr. K.R. Conklin, who hand-wrote some modifications to his trust in 1996. He and his wife were embarking on a cross-country trip, and just in case something happened to them, they wanted to change the distribution of stuff in their trust....

As previously discussed on this blog, in late February, the Senate Finance Committee released a 334 page report taking both the FDA and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to task for what it found to be an unacceptable risk of heart attack linked to use of the drug Avandia, a medication used to treat diabetes. On the heels of this finding and the release of an FDA report finding a link between Avandia and heart attacks, The San Jose Mercury News reported Friday that Santa Clara County, California, has filed suit against GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Avandia....

John Gardner, a convicted child molester, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, John Gardner was spared the death penalty, but denied the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles Times reports. As previously discussed John Gardner, a 30-year-old registered sex offender, pleaded not guilty to murdering Chelsea King. He was sentenced to life in prison. He also pleaded guilty in a case involving the body of another San Diego teenager, Amber Dubois, 14, who disappeared a year ago....

CVS Caremark is apologizing after a New Jersey pharmacy mistakenly gave children cancer medication instead of fluoride pills, the Associated Press reports. Children in as many as 50 families may have received the breast-cancer treatment drug Tamoxifen instead of chewable fluoride tablets as prescribed, according to CVS Caremark. Only a few children ingested the cancer pills mistakenly dispensed by a CVS pharmacy in Chatham, N.J., the company says. New Jersey’s attorney general’s office is looking into whether any laws were violated, the AP reports....

In January 2009, Alexander Landau experienced a brutal beating at the hands of three Denver police officers who later fabricated police reports so that the Department would not investigate his claims. This week, a lawsuit filed by Landau alleging that the officers violated his civil rights was settled, with the city council unanimously agreeing to award him $795,000. As alleged in his complaint, Alexander Landau was pulled over by Ricky Nixon for allegedly making an illegal left turn....

Four members of the “Tran Organization” were sentenced for a high tech scheme in which they cheated casinos across the U.S. and Canada. So far, 29 members of the group have pleaded guilty to cheating a combined total of 25 casinos. How’d they do it? Some sort of Hollywood break-in caper? A card counting savant? Not really – just some high tech card cheating. As explained in a Department of Justice press release, the group employed hidden transmitters and card predicting software in a mission impossible version of the “false shuffle....

You’ve got a great idea, and you’re sure it’s going to make it big! Now all you need is money, quite a bit more than you’re willing to personally invest, to give this project some legs. Before you start blasting your friends on social media to announce your latest rewards-based crowdfunding project, here are a few things to consider before posting that Kickstarter campaign. Generally speaking, an enforceable contract exists when there is an offer, acceptance, consideration, and an intention to create a legal relationship....

Strange things happen in cemeteries. And we’re not just talking ghosts. When it comes to the business of burial, there is plenty to fear. Burial plots have gotten double booked. Corpses have gone missing. Bodies are not always buried where they are supposed to be. And of course, sometimes graves get robbed. You can sue a cemetery for falling short with a corpse. It’s a grim topic. But Halloween is upon us, so now’s as good a time as any to take a look at how it is done....

Cold and flu season is in full swing. E. coli is popping up at restaurants nationwide. And now the Zika virus is out there wreaking havoc. You’ve already got a full plate as a small business owner, and now you have to worry about the impact that sick employees could have on your small business? And it’s not just lost presence and productivity – sick workers can cost your small business millions in lost revenue as well....

We were just telling you last month that, with a little care and respect, it was still safe to visit Hawai’i this summer. And then a lava bomb crashed through the roof of a tour boat, injuring 23 passengers off the coast near Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. (It turns out the tour company has been sued twice in the last five years for “failing to warn passengers of dangerous conditions” and “dispensing with any kind of risk assessment when selecting an area to view the volcanic eruption....

The days of tax-free shopping on the Internet may be coming to an end. Congress seems poised to pass an Internet tax law, the Marketplace Fairness Act, that allows states to force online companies to tax their customers. While the Internet tax law is being touted as a “new” tax, legally speaking, it should have zero impact on the amount of taxes customers pay for online purchased goods. However, from a practical standpoint, small business owners just lost a huge advantage they had on traditional brick-and-mortar stores....

There have been a lot of news lately of top executives in Silicon Valley jumping ship to work with company rivals. The fact is that competition for talent is fierce in most high-stakes industries with limited employee pools, causing companies to go above and beyond normal recruiting methods. But the question remains: Is employee poaching actually legal? In the grand scheme of things, employee poaching is legal. But given a specific set of facts, it may actually cost you a large sum of money....

So if you have an IVC filter, should you panic? No. But you should familiarize yourself with the dangers and if you’ve been injured due to a filter then you should consider a lawsuit. You will not be at all alone — according to the Lawyers and Settlements blog, there already nearly 1,000 such cases already. Why IVC Filters? Filters are implanted in the inferior vena cava of patients who can’t tolerate anti-coagulants or other medications designed to thin blood and prevent clots....

We here at FindLaw get a lot of questions about immigration law and the fiancé visa. Under U.S. immigration law, there is a nonimmigrant visa classification called a K-1 which is designed for the fiancé of an American citizen that is coming to the United States to marry. First, the American citizen must file Form I-129F, Petition for Relative or fiancé in the place having jurisdiction over petitioner’s residence. If the I-129F is approved, it will be forwarded by INS to the American consulate where the fiancé visa application will be filed....

As a part of most boilerplate contracts, non-compete clauses are a standard way for business owners to protect their interests when employees move on. But can a modern small business, especially in the tech sector, expect to enforce a geographic limit on how far away a former employee must work? Enforcing Non-Compete Agreements Valid non-compete agreements are generally enforced by courts based on one common distinguishing feature: they are reasonable. Although there can be other issues with contract formation and consideration, the main issue with enforcing a non-compete clause is that the restrictions involved must be realistic and reasonable based on your business and industry....