April 14, 2010 by Zale.

It used to be that bullying in schools had to do with bigger kids picking on smaller ones.  While that still goes on, a bigger bully has slowly crept into our schools.  Groups like the ACLU have been making strides to get deeper and deeper into our schools in the name of liberty.  However, what they have actually done is turned our school systems into censorship boards for religious speech.  Here’s a good article that discusses this point further.

Recently, I met with a group of Christians dealing with this issue.  The ACLU filed suit over a student praying and Bibles being passed out at schools.  Oh the humanity!! Now with all that goes on in kids lives, is this what they think they should put their time and effort into?  Ridiculous!  Anyway, the result of that case now has the school system scared to allow the students and teachers to have their constitutionally protected free speech.  Why?  Not because the school actually agrees with the ACLU, but because they are scared of them.

What do we do with bullies?  We stand up to them.  Groups like the ADF, Liberty Counsel and the ACLJ do it all the time.  Don’t fear the ACLU, if you have an issue like this get a God fearing attorney to stand with you (yes, they really do exist)!

Posted in Freedom of Religion, Constitutional Law, Freedom of Speech, You've got to be kidding! | No Comments »

March 23, 2010 by Zale.

Right now, you are probably overwhelmed with feelings and emotions.  How will this change my life?  What will people think?  How am I going to tell my parents or friends or husband (who is not the father)?

Stop.  Take a deep breath.  Believe it or not, it will be okay.  Every child is a blessing.  That child is a gift from God, whether you believe it or not.  You essentially have three options, one of which is terrible.  They are:

• Parenting the child: Regardless of your situation, this is difficult, but generally you can do it.  If you choose to take this route, find a support network to surround yourself with and DO NOT BE AFRAID to ask for their help.  Find an accepting church.  Find your local crisis pregnancy center.  Let them help you.  God will lead you through this.  Let Him bless you in this, even though it is never easy.

• Adoption:  As an attorney I get to share in the joy of this with people.  This allows for the child to go to a loving and nurturing home, if you can’t provide that.  You can also arrange it so that you see the child, so the child is not completely removed from your life. Statistically there are more qualified families looking for babies than there are babies for adoption in the US, so the child will find a good placement.

• Abortion:  Its murder, plain and simple.  The fetus is alive at the point of conception, which is well before the mother realizes she is pregnant.  A fetus is not just a blob of tissue, as abortion advocates would like for you to believe.  Whether an abortionist chooses the surgical methods, which brutally dismember the child, or the chemical methods, which callously starve the child, it is still the taking of your baby’s life.  The Roe case, which brought about all the abortion clinics and alleged “rights”, was based on lies and it is unfortunate that those lies still impact so many lives today.  If you are considering this option or are being pressured into this option, find a local crisis pregnancy center.  They live to help women in your situation.

I hope and pray that this will help you in your tough situation.  Furthermore, my office is always happy to assist you in dealing with the options above.  Be brave and don’t let others twist your arm and coerce you into doing something you don’t want to do.

Posted in Adoption, Constitutional Law, Child Advocacy, Right To Life | No Comments »

March 11, 2010 by Zale.

Much of the Juvenile Law I deal with has to do with parents who struggle being parents.  Physically and biologically, they seem to be able to bring children into this world, but after that, they are lost.  The remedy for this is often adoption.  The beauty of most adoptions is that the child is truly wanted.  A court order will never replace the connection or relationship with a biological parent, but that court order sure goes along way toward helping the child grow into a successful, well balanced adult.

What’s more is that adoptions are spiritual.  As a non-Jew, God has adopted me into the fold of His family.  I guess that’s why I enjoy doing adoptions so much.  It’s a lot like our relationship with God.

Posted in Adoption, Child Advocacy, Right To Life | No Comments »

February 13, 2010 by Zale.

It’s an unfortunate truth, but appearance matters in court.  It may even be the small things of putting on a nice plain shirt and shaving that makes the difference.  Maybe its covering up some of the tattoos or having a natural hair color.  Whatever you can do to make your appearance better is helpful, regardless of whether you are in front of a judge, a jury, your probation officer, your adjuster or a DCS worker.  Check out this article for more details.

Posted in Child Advocacy, Litigation, Criminal Law, Injury Law | 1 Comment »

February 5, 2010 by Zale.

When you have been involved in an accident and your vehicle has been damaged, the question of whether or not the vehicle is a total loss often comes up. Generally the average individual has not had to deal with this situation before. Therefore, I would like to take a few moments and touch on the topic. I will refer to Tennessee law, however, many of these principles are fairly universal.

What is a “Total Loss”? It is when the value of the repairs exceeds a certain percentage of the value of the vehicle. In Tennessee there is a statue which addresses this. Tenn. Code Ann § 55-3-211(9) defines a “salvage vehicle”, which is what your damaged vehicle has now become, as:

“…any passenger motor vehicle which has been wrecked, destroyed, or damaged to the extent that the total estimated or actual cost of parts and labor to rebuild or reconstruct the passenger motor vehicle to its pre-accident condition and for legal operation on the roads or highways exceeds seventy-five percent (75%) of the retail value of the passenger motor vehicle, as set forth in a current edition of any nationally recognized compilation (to include automated databases) of retail values.”

Therefore, in my experience, the 75% mark in Tennessee is generally threshold for a total loss. For example, if you vehicle is worth $10,000 and the value of the repairs is $7,500, its a total loss.  However, I do not know of any rule preventing an insurer from using a lower threshold.

What often complicates this process is the way most vehicle damage estimates are written. Most of them are written with the anticipation that there will be at least one additional estimate written, that additional estimate is called a supplement. So, if the shop writes a $6,800 estimate for the above vehicle, it may not technically be a total loss at the time the estimate is written. This occurs because most insurance companies want their estimates to be written on “visible damage”. After the shop tears down the vehicle, that is when they can see the additional damage and the supplement is written. Therefore, just because the initial estimate says $6,800, that does not mean that that is the maximum amount of the damage to the vehicle. It just means that is the visible damage to the vehicle.  (At one time, appraisers could use their experience and common sense to write estimates of hidden damage, but rarely do companies allow them to use their common sense any more.)

Based on the above, I have seen shops write, what I thought, were intentionally low initial estimates and then issue three to four supplements after having the vehicle in the shop. Some of those vehicles might have been better off as total losses, but then the shop would not have gotten paid to fix them.

So there’s the basic concept of a total loss, which often goes unexplained to the average consumer.  If you have any questions as to a related topic, such as the evaluations run by the insurers or determining the retail or market value of your vehicle, please feel free to post a comment.

Posted in Insurance Practices, Insurance Law | 1 Comment »

December 17, 2009 by Zale.

Since I was an insurance adjuster for over a decade, I enjoy dealing with insurance related disputes.  They don’t come up all the time, but when they do, they can be very stressful for the client.

Here is a recent Tennessee case dealing with such a dispute.  This appears to be what’s known as a “construction defect” claim where the insurer denied coverage.  I handled a few of these.  They’re pretty complex.

In this scenario, the proper way to get the court to determine coverage is known as a Declaratory Judgment Action.  In this case, the plaintiffs made other claims like “bad faith”, “Tennessee Consumer Protection Act” and that sort of thing, but for me, the heart of this case is that the court DID GIVE THEM INSURANCE COVERAGE at the end of the day.

Posted in Litigation, Insurance Practices, Insurance Law, Business Law | No Comments »

November 11, 2009 by Zale.

There are many things in this life that we can do on our own.  The problem is that often we miss details that a professional can pick up on.  It’s easy for individuals, who don’t know any better, to allow an insurance company, a district attorney, the Department of Children’s Services or any number of other individuals or agencies to take advantage of them.  Do all of those in power take advantage of the average person? No.  Do some of them? Absolutely.  How does the average individual know if they are getting the best deal or treatment? Hire an attorney.

When you hire an attorney, if nothing else, it keeps the other side honest.  It lets them know that you at least want someone looking out for your best interest.  It also gives you, the client, someone to help you understand what’s going on.  Often law is tricky.  So much so, that even attorneys can’t know it all.  At least with an attorney by your side, you have a much greater shot at getting treated fairly.

Posted in Negotiations, General Law | No Comments »

October 13, 2009 by Zale.

An officer pulls over soon to be DUI defendant.  The officer asks the soon to be DUI defendant to do some standard field sobriety tests.  Obviously at the “top of his/her game” the soon to be DUI defendant says, “sure, if you’ll do them with me.”  The questioning officer declines off handed offer, but the officer’s partner, who has been watching up to this point, gladly accepts the offer.  The officer’s partner completes the tests perfectly while the very soon to be DUI defendant falls all over his/herself.  Of course, all of this is caught on the officer’s dashboard camera.

So, whether you comply or not with an officer’s request to do a field sobriety test is up to you, but please, don’t ask an officer to serve as a bench mark on how the test should be completed, unless you know FOR A FACT that the other officer is drunker than you are.

Posted in You've got to be kidding!, Criminal Law | No Comments »

August 31, 2009 by Zale.

Tennessee is typically a pretty conservative state when it comes to people being injured on the premises of a business.  However, the case law in Tennessee does not let a business owner completely escape liability for the bad acts of an individual on the business property.  If it can be proven that the business had some culpability for the acts of that person, even if those acts are criminal, then the business can be held liable for the acts of that person.

Recently a plaintiff won $10 Million, yes Million, against Ruby Tuesday.  What did Ruby Tuesday do wrong?  It sold alcohol to an already intoxicated person, who then beat the stew out of the customer / plaintiff.  Wow!  That makes one wonder if Tennessee is as conservative at the insurance defense bar once thought it was.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law, Business Law | No Comments »

August 18, 2009 by Zale.

Some folks think that rear end automobile accidents are a “shoe in” to win.  Over my years as an adjuster, covering most of the southeast and even some of the southwest, I’ve seen them lost from time to time.  Attorneys and claimants alike would think I was crazy when I would bring it up, but it does happen.

Here’s the latest case of this nature that I’ve seen.  Apparently the plaintiff won the issue regarding the defendant being at fault, but the plaintiff lost on the issue of any of the injuries being related to the accident.  Why?  Well, it appears to have been a fairly minor accident and the plaintiff appears to have had a history of medical problems, which lead up to this accident.  In short, the jury didn’t believe the plaintiff.

At the end of the day, its still a popularity contest and you never can predict what a jury will do.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law | No Comments »