Areas of the Law You Should Consider Studying
Lawyers in any field really have their work cut out for them and there are so many areas to specialize in. However, if you really want to make a difference then you should consider studying tax, family, or immigration law.
Tax Law
Tax lawyers deal with domestic and international disputes. Since there are frequent changes in state and federal codes, those in the tax law field are constantly learning and working on furthering their education. This also means that there is a constant need for lawyers in this field. You’ll be able to make a small difference in the financial world. Taxes can be confusing and your help as a tax lawyer can help struggling businesses or families get through a difficult situation.
Family Law
A family lawyer covers numerous matters, including divorce and custody disputes. A lawyer has an important job and a family lawyer’s job is even more important because it often involves children. Family lawyers can typically work in smaller firms and specialize in many different areas. They practice law for child abuse, legitimacy, civil unions, and anything marriage related. This is a difficult but rewarding area. It can be extremely emotional for clients and they are usually at their most vulnerable so they will need a lawyer that will be able to speak on their behalf.
Immigration Law
Immigration issues these days are high. There’s a major need for immigration lawyers. They work with individual clients with many issues. This includes people such as asylum seekers and individuals in the country illegally. An immigration lawyer is there to help immigrants through so many difficult scenarios that may come up just by being in this country. Being knowledgeable in immigration law will help you to help them. What you say in court may affect the rest of your client’s life. It’s critical to love this area of law and really know what you’re doing. The rewards from your hard work are immeasurable.
Being a lawyer is hard work so it’s important to choose an area of law that means something to you. Many lawyers choose their field because they have had a personal experience that drove them to choose it. There are so many fields to choose from. But, ultimately, any field you choose will end up making a difference in the world.
Read this next: 5 Reasons You Need a Lawyer for Your Contracts
How to Keep Your Legal Skills Sharp
Law school teaches you practical skills you will use for the rest of your legal career. However, it can be easy to go through the motions and dull your legal skills without practice. Here are a few ways to keep yourself sharp when it comes to legal processes.
Branch Out
If you are not feeling satisfied in your form of law, you might want to learn about other branches of legal study. Though you might not want to head back to law school, educating yourself online can inspire you to test your law skills in situations you are not accustomed to. This fresh outlook can inspire you.
Ask another lawyer what case they are working on. Find ways to learn about the recurring issues that face different practices. Read law journals that delve into cases you want to learn more about. There are many ways you can test your skills and constantly learn.
Keep Up with Legal News
Keeping up with the most recent legal news can also keep your mind primed for legal skills. Bookmark the law section of your primary news sources. Consider listening to as many outlets as you can to understand both sides of an issue. If you are not satisfied with the mainstream news outlets, try out podcasts.
There are many great podcasts that talk about legal current events and advice for law professionals. They can be more satisfying than news sites because they are able to delve into the topic deeply and descriptively. Download podcasts from different sources to try to find the perfect one for you.
Think Critically
Law school emphasizes the importance of critical thinking. This skill might sound like something you are doing day-to-day, but ‘going through’ the motions is an absence of intention and deep thought. Think about your personal values and the reason why you do specific actions. What was your goal in developing a legal career? Why is it important to you?
Everyone uses their internal value system in their everyday life. Plans to benefit others are caused by critical thinking. Thinking about legal situations and formulating your arguments is a great practice to develop. This is a great way to sharpen your mind.
Casual thinking dulls your skills over time. By making sure you listen to excellent legal minds, you can test your own ideas and strengthen your legal arguments. These develop your critical thinking abilities, and reestablish your love for the process of law. You should never stop learning.
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Growing Industries with Regulatory Hurdles
Cannabis, vaping, and tobacco are growing industries that are constantly adapting. Tobacco causes health problems, cannabis can help with health problems, but vaping is still new and unknown. Each of these growing industries faces regulatory hurdles in distribution, sale, and creation in order to protect the public.
Cannabis
Since it’s a rapidly growing industry, the cannabis industry still faces many regulations. There are both state and federal regulations, whether it’s being used recreationally or medicinally. The federal regulations all stay the same but each state is different. For example, in Arizona, it’s legal for medicinal use but not recreational and they have their own regulations in place to accommodate this rule. Illinois requires a detailed security plan to prevent theft and unauthorized access. This is a common regulation. Cannabis can be expensive and avoiding theft will help protect those that are selling it. Cannabis is still a growing industry and facing many new and challenging legal hurdles and problems.
Vaping
Vaping is still a very new industry and there are a lot of unknown factors involved. No one can assure the health benefits or issues that may arise from repeated use. One example of a regulatory hurdle that the vape industry has to deal with is that many social media sites prohibit vape advertising on their platforms. This causes an issue with finding good places to market their product. Anything that includes nicotine, which many e-cigarettes do, must include a nicotine addictiveness warning on the package. These, and many others, are all regulations that need to be met by those in the vaping industry.
Tobacco
Tobacco isn’t expected to still be a growing industry but in the last few years, it’s been on the rise. It’s expected to grow even more within the next five years. It has been proven that tobacco causes many health problems including heart disease, cancer, lung issues, and many others. Since tobacco can be harmful to the user and those around them, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA authority to regulate the creation of tobacco products. These regulations are in place to keep the public safe.
Any industry faces many rules and regulations but these growing and slightly controversial industries face more than the average industry. Cannabis, vaping, and tobacco have many regulations in place to protect the public. That’s what rules do—they keep people and companies safe.
Read this next: CBD and the Law: What You Need to Know
Financial Situations That Require Legal Assistance
When it comes to interacting with lawyers, it’s not an everyday thing. While you see doctors, professors, and teachers regularly, you only see lawyers under very particular circumstances. Because of this, it can sometimes be difficult to know which situations require a lawyer’s expertise. Having some of these situations in mind can help you be prepared to reach out to a lawyer when necessary so that you can get prompt legal advice.
Estate Planning
Estate planning is the process whereby you designate how to allocate your assets in the case of death or even disability. Because there are so many assets to carefully consider as well as so many potential situations of disability or injury to be aware of, having legal assistance is imperative.
A lawyer can not only help you figure out how to allocate your assets in case of death or disability but help you make a plan for your own long-term care, setting aside funds for other bills, and help you designate a plan for making potentially difficult medical decisions.
Bankruptcy
Filing bankruptcy can also be an incredibly tricky situation to navigate. A lawyer has the skills to help you get through Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. He or she can help you figure out which path makes the most sense for your particular situation and how to minimize the damage that will be done to your credit.
Particularly, your lawyer can help you understand how to approach the potential loss of a small business, seizure of other assets, and potential bankruptcy litigation. Having sound legal advice can help you be prepared to actually go through the bankruptcy process.
Drug Charges
One of the most pertinent times when you should get a lawyer is if you ever get involved in a drug charge. Because drug charges can result in incredibly long sentences, it’s important that you have a lawyer who knows how to navigate the intricacies of drug laws.
Even for smaller infractions, having a lawyer can present your situation in such a way so that you meet criteria that allow the judge to make a sentencing decision without adhering to what otherwise could be a lengthy, mandatory minimum sentence.
There are multiple situations that you may encounter that may require legal assistance. Having some of these situations in mind can help you be prepared for the future. Start by considering these things and then do your own research about others so you can be the most prepared.
Read this next: How to Avoid Lawsuits Related to COVID-19
How to Make Business Regulatory Compliance Easier
All businesses have regulations they need to abide by. As time has passed, the governmental regulations businesses have to follow have significantly increased in volume. If the sheer volume alone weren’t enough, the changing nature of regulations only adds to the difficulty of staying in compliance. So what’s a business to do?
Develop Plans Around Regulations
It pays to be informed. In the case of regulatory compliance, it can literally save you money. There are penalties associated with non-compliance, with fines being among them. Get your business started on the right foot in regards to regulatory compliance by forming your business plans around regulations. Make sure that you as a leader are familiar with the applicable regulations you need to follow so you can develop your plan around them. The specifics will depend on your business and industry.
Keep Records
Regulatory compliance audits are a good way to ensure that your business is operating within its applicable regulations. Successfully making it through an audit hinges on your ability to prove compliance. Keeping careful records of compliance measures can go a long way towards making sure you pass. You’ll need to keep copies of any necessary licenses and permits, for example. A Safety Data Sheet contains information about health and safety in the workplace. It’s best to keep your records safe and secure, and in one place. There are multiple ways to do this. However, binders are outdated and manually updating spreadsheets leaves a lot of room for human error. You may find a document management system to be a better solution.
Hire a Compliance Officer
Given the changing nature of regulations you need to stay in compliance with, it may be best to make it someone’s job to keep track of them. A corporate compliance officer’s job is to monitor the regulations relevant to your business and industry. As they are updated, the CCO can implement and monitor a compliance program to help your business stay within regulatory compliance. This takes some of the burden off of you and makes it easier for your business to be in compliance.
Keeping track of and maintaining regulatory compliance can be tough, given the volume of regulations and the potential for them to change. You can make compliance easier and get your business set up on the right track by developing your business plans around current regulations. Keep meticulous records. You may find it helpful to hire someone specifically for the purpose of helping your company maintain compliance. Take steps now to ensure your business complies with regulations to avoid the penalties of failing to do so.
When Entrepreneurs Needs Legal Consultation
There are a lot of legal aspects to starting and running a business. Having access to legal advice can go a long way towards smoothing out a lot of potential wrinkles in operations. Even well-established businesses who have been operating for some time opt to have legal help with a variety of issues. Entrepreneurs are no different. There are times when they will significantly benefit from having a legal consultation.
Stay Compliant With Taxes
Tax laws can be complicated, often seemingly unnecessarily so. How a business is taxed is often dependent on the legal entity the business has chosen to structure as. With the ins and outs of taxes being as complex as they are, it can be tough to know if your chosen structure is the best one for your business in terms of taxation. Tax attorneys can help you sort out what option is best for your business while staying compliant with tax laws.
Buying and Selling Businesses
Buying and selling businesses can be a pretty involved process if you want to make sure you’re making a sound business decision. There’s the valuation of the business, the negotiating process, and all the paperwork involved before the transaction is complete. If you want to make sure you’re making the right choice, one of the things you’ll need to do is closely examine the financial history of the business. A lawyer can review the financials of a business to look for any irregularities or mistakes. It’s also a good idea to have them look over the agreements and contracts before you sign them. You’ll be better able to avoid agreeing to something that isn’t in your favor.
Source: https://www.podium.com/article/insurance-agency-for-sale/
When Facing a Lawsuit
Being sued is an inherent risk of doing business. Lawsuits can come from virtually anywhere. Disgruntled consumers, customers who may have been injured and claim your business is responsible, and even your own employees can find grounds to sue. Having a lawyer on board who can help you make the best decisions about how to handle any lawsuits that come your way is a good way to make sure you don’t accidentally make a decision that ends up hurting your business unnecessarily.
Source: https://www.prinz-lawfirm.com/our-blog/2017/july/top-reasons-employees-sue-their-employers/
Legal advice can be invaluable, especially in certain situations. Making sure you’re compliant with tax laws, purchasing or selling a business, and facing a lawsuit are just some of the instances when entrepreneurs are highly likely to benefit from a legal consultation. Find a lawyer who specializes in the situation you’re facing to create the best outcome for your business.
Read this next: How to Avoid Lawsuits Related to COVID-19
Learn more about CEOs like Tarl Robinson of Plexus Worldwide.
Know Your Rights: Getting Arrested
Getting arrested is no laughing matter. If you have never had a lot of interaction with law enforcement before, it can be quite scary, especially if you don’t think you’ve done anything wrong. While being arrested does mean that you lose certain freedoms, such as the ability to leave if you want to, you don’t surrender your rights as a citizen. But what are some of those rights?
Right to Remain Silent
When you are arrested, the police will interview you and try and get you to tell them what is going on or to confess. Anything that you do say to them is on the record, and they will use it against you. On the other hand, you don’t have to say anything. You cannot be forced to talk. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t ask you questions. Tell them that you aren’t going to answer, and then don’t say anything, no matter what they ask you. Even if you have said you won’t answer, they will still use anything that you say.
Right to An Attorney
Every person arrested by police has the right to have their attorney present. As soon as a person states that they want an attorney the police can no longer question them until the attorney arrives. You can ask for an attorney at any time, but you have to be very specific. Sometimes the police will ignore requests that aren’t forceful enough. When requesting to speak to a lawyer, make sure that you clearly tell them that you want to speak to a lawyer now and that you won’t say anything until you have an attorney.
Right to Medical Care
If you are hurt during the arrest or you have a pre-existing medical condition, law enforcement is required to treat you. But they can’t do that if you don’t speak up. Let someone know when you are being booked if you need treatment and continue to insist on it until you receive treatment, especially if it is a serious medical concern.
Right to A Speedy Trial
Once you are arrested, you have to be charged with a crime within 72 hours or law enforcement has to let you go. After they have charged you, they need to set a court date within a reasonable amount of time. This protects you from being incarcerated for a long time before you are tried.
Even when you have committed a crime, you don’t surrender any of your rights during the arrest process. Don’t be afraid to insist that you are treated properly, and to seek redress if you are not.
References:
What Does At-Will Employment Mean?
When talking about finding or leaving a job, one phrase tends to stick out: “at-will employment.” It’s in your contract, it comes up when you talk about not liking your job, it may be part of the discussion if you are let go, but what does it actually mean? Does it really mean that you can quit or be fired without a reason? Are there any protections for you as an employee?
Definition
At-will employment comes from a labor law that allows an employer to terminate any employee for any reason, without warning. Conversely, an employee can leave their job at any point without any reason or warning. If you are hired as an “at-will” employee, courts usually won’t give you damages for any loss that incur as a result of being let go.
Implied Contract
There are some exceptions to at-will employment. One of the most common one is implied contracts. An implied contract can be made through oral assurances or written policies contained in an employee handbook, policy, memo. These statements could be outlines for disciplinary procedures, assurances of long-term employment, or a history of handling hiring and firing. Not only can these instances be taken as a contract, they are often enforced in court. Because of this, employers usually coach all written communication in general terms, to preserve their employee’s at-will status. They also include a statement that employees hired as an “at-will employee,” meaning that they can be let go or leave at any point.
Public Policy Exception
In addition to implied contracts, states can prohibit firing based on state policy or public service roles. For instance, you cannot be fired for serving on a jury or being deployed in the military, since these are public service roles. You also can’t be fired if you have applied for worker’s compensation, or for being a whistleblower. These stipulations allow employees to be contributing members of society and to act in self-interest without worrying about losing their jobs.
Legal Exceptions
The biggest exception to at-will employment is federally-protected classes. You cannot be fired as discrimination, retaliation, or defamation. These cases can be harder to prove, but they usually require you to prove that you were discriminated against, that it was a retaliation, or that the company has damaged your reputation. If this is the case, you will usually have to go to court. You probably won’t get your job back, but you can receive damages.
In the end, at-will employment is a way for employers to protect themselves against unlawful termination suits. You know what you are getting yourself into when you take a job that specifies that you are an at-will employee. Make sure you read all the documentation and contracts carefully so you are aware of the specifics of your job.
References:
Implied Employment Contracts and Wrongful Termination
Exceptions to Employment at Will
Battle of the Car Accidents: New vs Old
It’s not secret that new cars now have a variety of features, but do those features really make those cars better than older cars? After all, many older cars were built with solid metal frames and seem like they could hold up well in an accident against these newer plastic cars. Right? Let’s see what the data says. Here are 4 factors to compare how old cars measure up to new cars. Which will come out the victor?
Drivers Fatality Rate
Imagine if an older car and a new car were to crash into each other. If only one driver died, which driver do you think it would be? According to government studies, the driver of the older car is 70% more likely to die. The research, conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, indicated that one is safer in a new car than they are in a car built in an older model, particularly one from before the mid-90’s. The research shows that the driver of a car 18 years or more old dies in an accident 71% more times than one in a three-year-old or newer vehicle.
That’s some pretty sobering statistics, particularly for parents who might want to put their teenage driver in a cheap clunker of a car. While your child may only need it to get from home to work and school, you want them to arrive safely, and buying a car older than they are won’t do it, even if you paid pennies for it.
What about middle-aged cars though? That same study by the NHTSA found that the driver fatality rate of cars eight to eleven years old is only 19% worse than brand new cars, and four to seven year old cars have a 10% worse driver fatality rate than new.
Conclusion: Models less than 11 years old have a significantly lower fatality rate than older models.
Seatbelts
So driving new cars is safer than driving older cars, but if you fail to buckle up, none of those safety features matter. The study by the NHTSA found that the odds of a belted driver being killed fell from 46% in cars that were 19 years old to 26% in new cars. However, in unbelted drivers, the odds started at 78% in old cars and dropped to only 72% percent in new cars. Consequently, whether or not you’re driving a new car, wearing your seatbelt raises your chances of survival by a large margin.
Conclusion: Wearing seatbelts in new cars is safer than older models.
Car Structure
While one might think that older cars are made of stronger metals, that’s not actually true. New models are made with lighter but stronger alloys, thanks to engineering feats. This means that new models aren’t as weak as you might think. In fact, one Australian study found that old cars sustain catastrophic structural failure in fatal accidents. The old cars in the study are also associated with severe leg, chest, and head injury to the driver. This is partly due to older models not having safety features like airbags, which are mandatory in new cars.
In Australia, old cars account for only 20% of the cars in the road, yet they cause 33% of the accidents. In the US, the average age of cars is older – around 11.5 years old.
Conclusion: New cars are stronger and more structurally-sound.
Winner: New Cars
New cars have a lower fatality rate and more safety features, and they are built better than most older models of cars. Many bad accidents involving old cars lead to fatalities for the drivers or passengers in the older car. According to Stewart Guss, no matter how careful of a driver you are, sooner or later, you’ll get into a car accident. Always wear your seatbelt, regardless of the age of the car. Seatbelts save lives and they can save yours.
You Have Rights; 5 Ways to Ensure Those Rights are Protected
When you are potentially facing criminal prosecution, you may feel intimidated and terrified. Both your actions and words before, during and after arrest can affect the outcome of the case, a factor that makes it important to ensure that your rights are protected. Regardless of the reason for arrest and being taken to custody, the constitution guarantees you certain rights that you can exercise.
Exercise your right to remain silent after an arrest
There is no doubt that being arrested can make for a terrifying experience. However, it is advisable to exercise your constitutionally protected right to remain silent. As much as you should remain compliant and avoid resisting the arrest, you do not have to answer all the questions asked by law enforcement agencies. The information you provide could have a major impact on the case.
Ask to speak with a lawyer
One of your fundamental rights when facing possible criminal prosecution is to have an attorney present while you are being questioned. In order to protect this right, you should ask to speak to a lawyer. It is never a good decision to answer the prosecutor’s questions especially if the charges you are facing are serious.
Contact your attorney
The criminal justice system can be quite complex, making it important to have an attorney who will give you expert advice and guidance. Contact an attorney for help as you want to be sure that every decision taken will be in your best interests. The attorney will also represent you in court during the trial stage.
Keep the details of the case between you and the attorney
It is normal to want to discuss the details of your case with family, friends and colleagues. However, protecting your rights under such circumstances requires that you keep these details between you and your lawyer. In the event that the case goes to trial, these individuals may be forced to testify against you. This may be a factor that may not work in your favor.
Listen to the legal expert
If you want to protect your legal rights, it would be advisable to listen to your criminal defense attorney. Once the legal expert has considered all facts, they will take the appropriate steps. In the end, the charges you face may be dismissed or dropped. There is also the possibility you could reach a plea agreement or the case could go to trial.
An experienced criminal defense attorney can help to ensure that the charges you face are reduced or dismissed. This is why you should work with a trustworthy attorney who is knowledgeable in the law and is familiar with the local justice system.