Woman Used a Commercial Will Instead of a Lawyer

The Florida Bar News edition from June 1, 2014 features an article about a woman who chose to use a commercial or generic will instead of working with a lawyer to prepare a specific will for her needs.

In this case the commercial will form saved her some money in preparing the document.  But it cost her family much more in litigating the will that the initial lawyer would have been.  The problem experienced by this woman could have been easily avoided by addressing all the necessary items in the will had she chosen to use an attorney.  This is not an uncommon story

Florida Tech Presents: Tomorrow's Lawyers

As written by Florida Tech’s School of Arts and Communication:

Second Annual Lecture in Law

Patricia D. White, Dean & Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, presenting “Tomorrow’s Lawyers”

Thursday, September 26, 2013 in the John and Martha Hartley Room, 2nd Floor, Denius Student Center

  • 5:00 PM Late Registration & Check In
  • 5:15 PM Reception
  • 6:00 PM Lecture

Call (321) 674-8382 or email pdpregistration@fit.edu to register.  More information available on FIT’s website.

Law schools have been under attack in the popular press and the legal profession is changing in many ways. The traditional funding models for education are becoming increasingly problematic. Join Miami Law’s dean, Patricia D. White, as she addresses these issues and shares her vision for legal education and the profession. Dean White will discuss the ways in which Miami Law is anticipating the continuing effects that globalization, technology and the economy will have on the legal world.

The Agenda for the presentation is as follows:

Agenda

  • 5:00 PM  Last Minute Registration and Check In
  • 5:15 PM  Networking Reception with Light Refreshments
  • 6:00 PM  Welcome by Dr. Robert Taylor, Head, School of Arts and Communication
  • 6:05 PM  Introduction of Dean White by Brooke Goldfarb, Prelaw Mentor and Adjunct Faculty
  • 6:10: PM Dean Patricia D. White- “Tomorrow’s Lawyers”

Issues including the fact that law schools have been under attack in the popular press and the legal profession is changing in many ways are covered by Patricia D. White, law dean, University of Miami, who shares her vision for legal education and the profession. Also disscusses how Miami Law is anticipating the continuing effects globalization, technology and the economy have on the legal world, and how traditional funding models for education are becoming increasingly problematic.

  • 7:00 PM  Floor open to questions from the audience for Dean White
  • 7:15 PM  Final question for Dean White, Thank You and Closing Remarks by Brooke Goldfarb

Fingerprint Evidence Restrictions Per Judge

Here is a link to an interesting article about a ruling from south Florida relating to criminal law and the admissibility of fingerprint evidence. It is a quick read if you have a minute.

Miami-Dade judge rules fingerprint evidence
should be restricted

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch, who often wades into controversial legal ground, is questioning long-accepted scientific ideas on latent prints.

Read more here:

Comments from my Facebook post on this topic:

MJC:  Am I reading this right Ken? He thinks fingerprints should be limited b/c they could be similar?? I thought we all had exclusive prints like DNA?? Am I wrong??
Ken: The judge will allow fingerprint evidence to be presented to the jury but will not allow the fingerprint expert to say it “matches” the Defendant’s prints only that they are similar. From a strictly scientific point of view this is a correct ruling, however courts have allowed testimony that prints “match”.
DY: whats next throwing out confessions, oh wait they do that already, video tapes of the crimes, they could throw them out……
Ken: The area of false confessions is fascinating to me as innocent people sometimes confess where they have nothing to gain and the questioning seems non coercive. Then there are confessions made up by jail inmates and traded to the gullible. So yes, some “confessions” should be excluded from evidence.

You can follow my Criminal & Family Law related Facebook page or Twitter for updated information on many topics including local events, court rulings, interesting legal tidbits and more.

Defense of Marriage Act – Status


The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in September 1996 by President Clinton.   Under DOMA, as the act is known, no U.S. state  must recognize a same-sex marriage from any other state.  In fact section 3 of the law codifies “non-recognition” of same-sex marriages for all federal purposes, such as insurance benefits for government employees, Social Security survivors’ benefits, and the filing of joint tax returns.

On May 31, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a unanimous ruling on DOMA and became the first federal appellate court to rule the law unconstitutional.

To read more about the recent events regarding DOMA visit the ABA.org website for a comprehensive commentary.

Local Conservative Radio Host Picks Ken Rhoden

Posted by BLK

Just in the last few days, local conservative radio host, Bill Mick, released his popular How I Plan to Vote commentary. This article gives listeners and local residents his personal voting choices with some of the reasoning behind them. Bill is an involved member of the community, a conservative, and a very popular local radio personality on WMMB.

Bill released his vote choices for every race from the US level, to the state, circuit, and local levels.

Bill is choosing to vote for Ken Rhoden over his opponent saying,

“This is a question of which lawyer is best equipped to be the CEO of criminal defense in our area. Blaise Trettis is a career Public Defender and currently manages in the office. Ken Rhoden has worked in that office and in private practice. I prefer the business experience over bureaucracy in this case. I believe a new set of eyes managing the office will serve Brevard and Seminole better than more of the same. Ken Rhoden gets my vote.”

Several weeks ago Bill hosted a forum between Ken and his opponent.  You can listen to the entire interview or you can view the Bill Mick post interview video here.

The post interview video is very interesting for several reasons such as 1) Blaise did not know the budget method his own office uses, 2) Blaise lied in this video saying he is a first time candidate then backtracks with excuses about his campaign in 2008, and 3) Blaise clearly opposes improvements to the criminal rules of procedure that he doesn’t use nor seem to even understand.


Visit the Home Page of  KenRhoden.com

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