Study Shows Teens More Likely to Drive Stoned than Drunk A recent study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found a greater likelihood that teens would drive stoned or ride in a vehicle with a person under the influence of drugs than a vehicle being operated under the influence of alcohol. More than half of the males in the study, all college freshmen, said that they had been passengers in a vehicle driven by someone who has used marijuana before or while driving. About one-third of … [Read more...]
Managing Online Accounts after Death
January 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Plan to Protect Digital Information after Your Death Think of all the various places you have information online—Facebook and other social media accounts; online banking, memberships, Amazon.com and other retail accounts, your e-mail, everything you have in the cloud. What happens to all of that when you die? Who has access and who can get access? How can you prevent your loved ones from getting a computer-generated message from a social media account to wish you a happy birthday…long after … [Read more...]
California Supreme Court Looks at Defibrillator Requirements for Businesses
January 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
California High Court Considers Whether Businesses Must Have Defibrillators The retailer Target has been named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit, stemming from the death of a shopper who died of a heart attack while at a Target store in California. The deceased's family alleged that Target was negligent because, although it sold defibrillators to the public in its store, it did not have any available for use by the public. The case was originally filed in state court in California, but … [Read more...]
End of Life Planning
January 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Making the Best of Your Final Days In our culture, where longevity is often valued far more than quality of life, many individuals spend their last days undergoing medical procedure after medical procedure, enduring the endless and inevitable cycle of hope and despair. Often, the patients are not the ones making the decisions—loved ones pull out all the stops believing they are acting in everyone's best interests. There is, however, an option. You can put together an "end of life" plan that … [Read more...]
Bounce House Injuries under Scrutiny
December 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Bounce House Injuries Continue to Rise Bounce houses have become increasingly popular at youth birthday parties and at community events. Bounce houses are inflatable structures, typically enclosed with netting on the outside, where small children can go and jump and "bounce" around in a seemingly safe environment. Though bounce houses have been around for decades, studies show that there has been a 15-fold increase in the number of injuries tied to the structures in the last 15 years. One of … [Read more...]
Military Divorce
December 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Many Find It Difficult to Serve Country and Be Married at the Same Time The demands of serving in the armed forces can take a toll on a soldier's married and family life. Armed forces personnel can be deployed at a moment's notice, and may be gone for months at a time, without regular communication. Soldiers may have little opportunity to be with and bond with their children as they grow. The anxiety and stress that all parties feel when one spouse is in active combat or training can put an … [Read more...]
Hospital Hit for Unnecessary Heart Surgeries
December 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Plan to Protect Digital Information after Your Death A Kentucky hospital has settled a claim by the federal government that it billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary heart surgeries, agreeing to pay nearly $41 million. The King's Daughters Medical Center, in Ashland, had been accused in a federal government lawsuit of intentional or reckless disregard for the truth for performing a large number of procedures for patients who did not need them, including the insertion of stents and … [Read more...]
Divorce and Religion — Which Religions Are More Likely to See Divorce?
November 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Study Looks at Connection between Divorce and Religious Practice In a national study on the relationship between religious practice and divorce rates, researchers found some interesting—and surprising—trends. Though the common perception is that half of all marriages end in divorce, the study showed that the national average is actually around 36%. One of the first surprises of the study—those who are self-proclaimed atheists are among the least likely to seek a divorce. The research … [Read more...]
Defendant Wears “Crime Pays” Tee-Shirt to Court Hearing
November 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Murder Defendant Shows Up at Hearing with Offensive Shirt In a Philadelphia courtroom last month, a man charged with murder and arson in the strangling death of a 23-year-old art student appeared at his preliminary hearing sporting a tee shirt with the words "Crime Pays" on the front. Municipal court judge Teresa Carr Deni noted that the defendant, 22-year-old Jeremiah Jakson, had "a very interesting choice of shirt." Jakson claimed that he had no other clothes when he was arrested, so he was … [Read more...]
Telling Your Kids What’s In Your Will
November 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Should You Tell Your Children What's In Your Estate? Most of us don't like to contemplate our own deaths, a factor that many lawyers and estate planners say keeps people from taking measures to protect themselves and their heirs. But even if you have put an effective estate plan in place, you may be reluctant to discuss the details with your children or other potential beneficiaries. Experts, though, assert that it's in the best interests of everyone involved to have open and candid discussions … [Read more...]
