Miscellaneous

• Force People to Buy Health Insurance? Silly

  Ben Glass | February 01, 2008 6:07 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  The National Retail Federation has suggested to Congress and the Bush Administration that lawmakers consider an "individual mandate" requiring all individuals to obtain health insurance and new voluntary coverage options for part-time workers. We have heard this from some of the Presidential candidates. This is silly.The government has no business mandating that citizens buy anything, let alone...

• Pay Day Loan Rates Should Not Be Capped in Virginia

  Ben Glass | January 14, 2008 8:46 PM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  The Virginia General Assembly has started its 2008 session and one are of controversy is whether so-called "Pay-Day" loan rates should be capped.House Bill 12 proposes limiting the annual rate of these loans to 36%. This is a bad idea.A "pay-day" loan is a short term unsecured loan, usually of only a few hundred dollars, that generally carries a rather high rate of interest, especially when...

• Police Dog Bites Wrong Man

  Ben Glass | January 08, 2008 11:30 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  A man in St. Paul, Minnesota received a personal injury as a result of a case of mistaken identity.After a police officer went to a downtown bus stop in response to a call about a gun-toting suspect, he went to his squad car to get his police dog for assistance. The dog did his duty, chasing down a 19-year-old man and biting down on his lower left leg. However, there was one serious problem. The...

• Texas Man Loses Arm in Work Place Accident

  Ben Glass | January 06, 2008 11:25 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  A concrete worker from Texas is recovering from in the hospital after receiving personal injuries in an accident at his workplace on Wednesday, January 2. The accident resulted in the amputation of the man's arm.According to his son, 52-year-old Robert Kerstetter was greasing a machine at 4:30 a.m. the morning of the accident when his right arm was caught in the machine.He said that he had been...

• Attorney Stephen Thomas Conrad

  Ben Glass | December 12, 2007 10:52 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  In the last week, our office received several phone calls and emails from clients of this attorney who has been recently arrested. We investigated and found that according to the Virginia State Bar website, his license to practice law was recently suspended.The Virginia State Bar has a client protection fund and information about making a claim under the fund is here. Let me say that this is all...

• Health Insurance Plans taking more than their fair share

  Ben Glass | November 20, 2007 9:24 PM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal about the bit that 'subrogation' can take out of your personal injury case. The WSJ blog has a good discussion going and I have contributed to it. The bottom line with personal injury cases today is that the plaintiff and her lawyer need to figure out, in advance, whether the health benefit plan will be seeking reimbursement. If so, this has to...

• Appeals Court Issues Rare Public Rebuke of Judge

  Ben Glass | November 14, 2007 5:35 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  In an extraordinary public rebuke of a sitting judge for one of his decisions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has formally apologized to the parties for the cost and delay that the judge's action caused. The case is Calderon v IBEW Local 47.The plaintiff started a lawsuit and served one party but initially failed to serve a second party. The judge, Manuel L. Real, issued an order to "show...

• Coin Flipping Virginia Judge Tossed

  Ben Glass | November 06, 2007 6:36 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  In a highly unusual proceeding, the Supreme Court of Virginia has dismissed a Juvenile Court judge who (1) decided a custody matter by flipping a coin;(2) had a mentally disabled woman pull her pants down to show an alleged wound;(3) made and ex parte call to a local hospital to attempt to verify/discredit the woman's story about being wounded.What (else) is unusual is that the Supreme Court,...

• Is Capping Payday Loan Rates a Good Idea?

  Ben Glass | November 05, 2007 6:20 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  Here we go again. New laws being floated in Virginia to cap profits a business can earn. Those businesses making "payday" type loans are in the riskiest of lending businesses. They are taking a huge risk, and should be allowed to charge whatever they want as long as1. Loan terms are fully and fairly described2.The rules of the loan terms are followed.After that, no one is forcing these folks to...

• Dangerous Dogs In Fairfax County

  Ben Glass | November 01, 2007 10:45 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  I'm so glad to learn that upon searching, there are no dangerous dogs in Fairfax County.Now I can sleep at night.I'm sorry. This is idiotic. Who is going to go here to search. How much did Virginia spend on this?Oh, I get it now.The state is requiring liability insurance for dangerous dogs. Wonder who is insuring that?Here's the code section:Virginia Code § 3.1-796.93:1. Control of dangerous or...