General Practice Legal Questions

You are not required to leave anything to your daughter.  Moreover, certain assets, such as insurance proceeds, pass outside of a will based on who the designated beneficiary is.  If, for example, you have made your grandson your beneficiary under your life insurance policy, your grandson will receive the insurance proceeds, having nothing to do with any will.  This can also be true about certain types of deposit accounts - you can designate the beneficiary of the account, and those monies will pass outside of your will.... Read More

Probably not.  First of all, if you look at your contract I'm pretty sure that you will find a clause limiting the service provider's liability to some nominal sum.  Alabama law may be different, but in NY such clauses are emfprceable unless you can show that the the service provider was grossly negligent or reckless, in other words more than just negligent, and that such negligence caused your loss, i.e. that your truck would not have been broken into and/or that you would have recovered your stolen goods if the camera had been working.  Those are difficult propositions to prove. Also, did you know that the camera wasn't working?  If so, the service provider will argue that you could mitigated your damages by taking other precautions.  For example, had you leased another security camera until the first was fixed and then tried to recover the cost of the extra camera from the service provider, I thnk you would have had a better claim (Of course, if the reason you didn't do so is because the service provider kept promising to have the camera back to you in a couple of days, you would have a good reason not to have replaced the disabled camera).... Read More

Your friend can legally "ask" for anything, but an unconditional gift cannot be revoked except under circumstances which don't appear to be n play here (gifts in contemplation of marriage, gifts in contemplation of the death of the donor).  However, your friend may claim that he didn't make an unconditional gift, but rather that he, for example, was only letting you use the stuff until he got a new  place, or was letting you use it only as long as you let him use it in your home, or something else.  If the judge/jury believes you that it was an unconditional gift, you should win any lawsuit, but there is no guarantee that the judge/jury will not believe your friend's version.... Read More

You get with an experienced aggressive attorney to protect all of your interests. You say you "ex". Are you divorce? If so, what does the decree say? I'd need to review that to determine all of your rights. If not, do you want to get divorced? If so, you need to get with an aggressive family law attorney who has experience with divorce, abuse, property and difficult cases. I know what these cases are like, having handled a number. Your situation involves major factual and procedural issues. These are issues that we can discuss. If you are interested in pursuing the matter further, I offer an initial 1/4 hour consultation without charge, and a 1/2 hour consultation for $50. If you want to set an appointment for the initial consultation, feel free to telephone, or email, my office. 
Don't wait any longer, give a call and let's getting working to protect your rights. 

David R. Hartwig 

801-486-1715
drhlaw@ix.netcom.com... Read More

I don't think so (other than for the repayment of the money you loaned him).  The statement that "she is a golddigger" seems to me to be a statement of opinion, which is not actionable.  Only false statements of fact - "She stole $1 million from me" - can be actionable as defamatory.... Read More

As to owing you money, you need to send a demand, and then probably file suit against him. As to leaving things with your daughter, she needs to attempt to communicate with him about those things.   In both events, you should probably get with an attorney to determine whether it is worth moving forward.... Read More

Foreign substances in food cases are difficult to pursue and win. Insurance companies are highly suspicious of these claims because more often than not, people make fraudulent claims in an attempt to collect money from the insurance company. Certainly in your case, a dead mouse in a beer bottle is disgusting and enough to make anyone sick over. You don't really state whether you actually got sick over it, vomited, had to go to the hospital or have any other symptoms at this point. Therefore, without any sustainable damages, the case has little or not value to it from a legal perspective. The best you can do is document it for the company and get some free coupons (like you have stated) for some additional beer in the future. I am sure Budweiser doesn't want the publicity of your having found a dead mouse in one of their products.  If you decide to pursue the case legally in any way, the statute of limitations in WI is three years to sue for injury from the date of the occurence, or your claim would be forever barred.... Read More

There is a difference between YOU being liable, and your insurance company being responsible under your policy.  The person who would be liable would be the person or persons whose negligence caused the accident, usually the driver.  If the driver was not the owner but, for example, had a bad driving record, it is theoretically possible that the owner could also be partly responsible for allowing a dangerous driver to use their car.  Assuming that your son is driving and that there is no reason why he should be considered an especial risk, he would be liable for damages incurred in an accident caused by his negligence but you, not having caused the accident through negligence, would not be.  His insurance (on which you are also an insured) would cover such damages subject to the terms of the policy, i.e. there may be deductibles, policy limits, and particular types of damages which are not covered, and for which your son would be fully responsible.  In addition, your son's insurance premiums would go up.  I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that your insurance premiums wou also rise in such an instance.  Whether your separate insurance would also be used to cover your son's liability depends on the language of that contract.  For example an umbrella or excess policy might extend to such a claim, but I do not believe that an ordinary automobile policy on Car A would cover an accident in which Car B was involved, even if Car A and Car B are owned by the same person.  Again, however, exactly what your policy covers depends on the specific provisions of your policy. ... Read More

You should try to have a written contract with your neighbor which sets forth what can and cannot be done. The courts and police do not want to be involved. The court will 'bless' an agreement on the 'record' if an agreement can be reached. We have had success in the past with these agreements. Please call Ed Dimon, Esq. 732-797-1600... Read More