Are there death taxes? Ohio repealed its estate tax effective January 1, 2013. Does that mean there is no estate tax? Of course not. I would not be writing an entire article on this topic if that were the case. This article was written in 2014, so if you are[…]
The police need reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed prior to pulling someone over or temporarily detaining them. The police need probable cause to arrest someone. Even if the police are wrong, as long as they acted in good faith, the stop, detention or arrest is still valid. […]
When police arrest a suspect, the suspect is considered to be in custody. Because of the psychological power police can have over someone in custody, there are restrictions as to what the police can and cannot do in that situation. This includes questioning suspects while in custody. Questioning suspects in[…]
Dressing for court is important. Lawyers have a clear rule: male lawyers wear a minimum of a jacket and tie and usually a suit and tie; female lawyers wear a suit or other professional attire. If you see an attorney wearing anything else, you will usually hear the attorney apologize[…]
I often hear my clients tell me that someone else got a certain sentence for a similar offense and whether they could also get the same sentence. My usual response is that no two cases and defendants are exactly alike and so the sentences would not necessarily be exactly alike. […]
There are a number of factors that are used in calculating child support. Private health insurance affects child support. The parent who pays for the health insurance for the children gets credit for it in the child support calculation. However, the parent is only entitled to credit for the marginal[…]
Before the police can question someone who is in custody, they must give Miranda warnings, which are: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot[…]
In 2014, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a will drafted with online legal document company E-Z Legal Form failed to provide for the disposition of property not listed in the will, which left everything to a sister, then a brother. The Court also ruled that a handwritten note written[…]
There are times when the police conduct citizen tip traffic stops. When the police observe traffic violations that, by themselves, justify a traffic stop, courts need not analyze the reliability of the citizen’s tip in determining whether the traffic stop was valid. However, the police often gather little to no[…]
Recently, the Ninth District Court of Appeals determined legal custodian rights in children services cases. When a children services agency files a complaint against a legal custodian that can lead to temporary or permanent custody, the legal custodian has many of the same rights afforded to parents. No Initial Rights For Legal[…]