In the aftermath of car & truck accidents, there are always questions about legal liability for injuries and damages suffered by participants and victims. In a large-scale incident like this I-75 pileup, those questions are themselves now piling up.

Was arson a factor in smoke conditions blocking motorists' visibility?

Did the Florida Highway Patrol reopen the roadway too soon?

Are trucking companies responsible for questionable actions of the drivers of two large semi-trailers involved in the crash?

Like the thick smoke from a nearby prairie fire that blanketed a stretch of I-75 in the pre-dawn darkness of January 29th, the confusing array of facts and circumstances in play here are making it hard to clearly see the answers to those and other questions, for now.

Here's what we do know:

Would you be willing to trade your cell phone for privacy? No? That's what I thought, but a thought-provoking video by a TV news station has people second-guessing that decision.

This video shows that any time you take a picture with your smartphone and forward it to someone else or post it on the internet (ie: facebook), it marks exactly where the photo was taken. I don't simply mean the mall or a restaurant... I mean it collects data such as which room in your house- at your exact address- the photo was taken, and what time of day! Personally, I do not want anyone knowing the layout of my house or where I take my kids for preschool. That is just TMI ("too much information").

Please watch this video and learn how to turn off that feature in your phone. Privacy is a right that no one should take away. Pass this on to your family and friends to protect themselves.

I know it is off the subject of privacy, but since we are talking about pictures... I think it's a good time to remind you, obviously being that we are a personal injury firm, that if you are involved in an accident use your cell phone to take pictures of the scene of the accident.

Some wonder how after all this time and the treatments success why now? Didn't anyone see this coming? Truth is it was just a matter of time. Many beauty industry websites and blogs spoke up when the popularity of these treatments first started. Several salons refused to compromise dollars in favor of their employee's health but with this crazy economy caved and realizing that their customers were simply making appointments with their competitions they began offering the service. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that heating a dangerous chemical that if accidentally spilled on public roads you would witness what looks like (sorry movie buff here) a scene from the film Outbreak. Yea that's right HAZMAT suites, firefighters and a lot of yellow tape! Just a little FYI but I thought it interesting to see a basic protocol for a Formaldehyde spill ...ready? Hold your breath!

So what more could a girl ask for? To save all that time ...wake up in the morning with beautiful hair and out the door. Well, as with many things, it looks as though keratin treatments may be falling into the category of Too Good To Be True.

Although the family's attorney is quoted as saying "I have not seen a case like this. This is not medical malpractice. It's a battery", internet bloggers are busy picking sides of the issue, but that's really the big question... what's the issue? One side has traditionalists saying the family is just looking for a quick buck and no real harm was done; that it is a normal procedure that has its health benefits- and at a fast glance you might feel the same.

But the underlying details should get some of us thinking...I mean REALLY thinking. Is it really "not a big deal" when a hospital staff does not have time to simply walk outside a room and ask the parents of a child, who is already in intensive care, whether they desire to remove a body part... even if it's only a foreskin! I'm not blaming any one staff member or even the physician entirely, but are people nothing more than a number to hospitals? Even if the thought of a circumcision is the last thing on your mind, this case is simply showing a trend we are seeing across our imploding health care system...negligence!

Of course, the big question every struggling business owner is asking while reading this most awesome blog is...How Did They Do It??? Did they inspire employees to pursue superior customer service? Did they carefully invest in brand awareness and advertising agencies? How about plunking millions of your green Benjamin leaves into beautiful charities and thereby increasing public awareness? No? What's left? Oh yes, there's always the trimming and pruning employee wages. Sure you might reason, "Well, all the other companies are doing it", but there's something more dirty here than DDT's on organic brussel sprouts!

In a lawsuit filed by our firm, Thomas & Pearl, P.A., it is alleged that Dollar Tree was having assistant managers work hours and not get paid for it. In essence, the complaint alleges that assistant store managers are required to work through lunch and go to the bank- all "off the clock". That adds up to a lot of money for hard-working individuals...
Come on Dollar Tree... Don't you remember the old saying "You reap what you sow" or my favorite the Bulgarian proverb "A tree falls the way it leans." Well, if all that's too complicated you might remember the simple analogy of dominos. That's the simplest way to demonstrate "for every action there is a reaction" and the reaction is now under way as the class action lawsuits have piled in like fall foliage in upstate New York.

Who knew that such deeply thought out lyrics could have a bearing on our legal system? That's right... the "baggy look" as it's called is not easy to miss. If you're interested in this street-influenced haute couture fashion its application is simple. OK, take a young man with a 32 inch waist (for Europeans that's about a 46) for a well fitted pair of pants. Now, if you're going for the "baggy look" you simply ask the fitter for size 40 US or about 54 European. It's that easy!

So besides looking all dapper in your latest street fashioned apparel, what can this particular style get you? Well, we thought the only real drawback was that your shoulders may become slightly fatigued due to the fact that when wearing this style of clothing the wearer regularly needs to pull the waistband area in an upward movement in order to place one foot in front of the other...in other words, to "walk". Now let's say the wearer needed to "pick up the pace" a bit. Then the same motion of pulling the waistband upward would be multiplied two-fold like this - One step, two step, pull - and then repeat.

So...how hip is your attorney? I don't mean do they jam Lady Gaga, use "Wack" to describe prosecutors closing arguments or that they made the holy oath to never wear Ed Hardy in public... I mean, is your lawyer up on all the social networking? Now you're asking "Why would I care if my attorney is Tweeting, Linking-In and Facebooking?" Because, I tell you, yes YOU who remember pagers, cell phones with antennas and PC's that made noise when "dialing-up", the world is a different place! And...if your attorney, the one representing you and your case, isn't up on all the latest in Legal Land don't you think it may have some bearing on the end result? Well, whether you do or don't, here is something to make you go hummmm?

A recent survey by the ABA (American Bar Association) shows that the use of social media sites is quickly growing among attorneys. I already know what you're thinking and no, it's not all Tweets like "Mont Blanc just blew ink on the Burberry shirt!" or Facebooking "So excited for the trip to the Hamptons this weekend!" In fact, a growing number of attorneys are seeing that being plugged into the social sites expands their networking power, gives them the latest information on case developments and even helps with investigating details.

In 2008, about 15% of attorneys used site socializing. In 2009, that number jumped to about 43%, and now in 2010 the latest numbers are showing about 56% of lawyers are posting, sharing, and poking each other over the internet's social scene. Although there are hundreds of different social sites the three most popular with attorneys are LinkedIn, then Facebook followed by a distant Plaxo.

You think I'm kidding? The picture above is an angel whose delicate self esteem fought big corporation bonuses and lost. In 1999, Vivian Crane was twelve when first prescribed Accutane. Vivian's parents noticed the change to her personality almost immediately, but were not worried when the six month dosage ended. Her skin showed drastic improvement and her mood changed back to normal, but in September 1999 Vivian's acne returned and she began taking Accutane for the second time. Soon thereafter, she became moody with bouts of rage and began distancing herself from her family, even making disturbing statements to family members such as "I've lost the ability to love you. It was after this point that Vivian fell into a deep depression. In February 2000, she was taken off Accutane and prescribed Zoloft. By mid June, Vivian wrote several emails to friends about her depression. Then a few hours after her last email, Vivian exited this world by putting a rope around her neck. Vivian was fourteen years old.

So take a second and reverse engineer this and see where things went wrong. Let's start with a teenager checklist.

First of course is - Sex (where, when and will I catch anything?) Quickly followed by - Friends (Do I have enough, Am I popular, why didn't so-and-so say hi to me in the hall?) And always the dreaded - Parents (why are they so strict, why do they always embarrass me, will they know if I have sex?) Then throw choices about alcohol, are my F-CAT scores high enough, I hate my math teacher, why can't my parents buy me a sports car like Jennie's did, mom and dad are always arguing, dad just lost his job, are they going to let me go to the party Saturday night, will Cathy say yes if I ask her to the party, why aren't my breasts bigger and thighs smaller, why do I have so much hair here and not enough there, I need a part time job, Rick smokes pot and he's seems ok, coach said I have to lose ten pounds, how come Tammy got a new Prada bag, I don't know what I want to be but everyone's telling me what I should be, college is expensive, oil leaks in the Gulf, nuclear war, bad economy, bad hair day, and is texting really that bad when you drive?

Well future America, like that duck, we're seeing headlights and they're getting bigger! And what's following these lights is heavier than any single vehicle and traveling much faster! All this is happening as our country continues its economic downturn and our dollar has as much respect as cheap copy paper. So the big question is what are you going to do about it???

NO! Don't you dare flip to the top ten booty videos of 2010 and plan out your next move on HALO! This is serious...it's YOUR future! Do you know that in 2006, out of 220,600,000 only 80,588,000 voted! That's 37%! Yea 37 out of 100 chose to do something about their countries future. But a year into that presidential term I wonder how many of the 63% complained about what was happening? But the truth is you have no right to complain when you're too apathetic to acutely do something.

The butt of jokes and cartoons, attorneys are often portrayed by the media as soulless and self-profiteering coyotes who would do anything short of eating their young. But I ask you to stop and think for a moment-- who do you need by your side more than any other person when human error, fate, karma, aligning of the stars or whatever else you want to call it, lands you in a hospital room or ER? Yeah, I know...at first you yell out for those who bring some kind of immediate support and comfort, but what do you NEED when the emotional smoke clears??? That's right...the punch line of your jokes a few hours earlier...a lawyer!

A kiss on the forehead, a hug that seems to last for hours, or the reassuring "Don't worry it will be OK" is just that...OK. But just try planting a wet one on the physician, hospital billing department or relentless debt collector and give him a reassuring "Don't worry it will be OK" and you may find it doesn't have the same effect it had on you. I'm not saying an opening icebreaker can't be a good lawyer joke, but next time you warm up with one of those take a second and think about the people who spend years in law school and suffer as interns only to end up as your great one-liners. They are men and women that, after a win or lose, go home to their families carrying all the emotional strain of their clients while still maintaining their composure.

With that said, did you hear the one about the lawyer and a piranha?

"Powerful experience so insurance companies know who we are...private so we never forget who you are."- Brian Pearl

Workers Compensation refers to benefits that cover an employee in the event of a work related illness or accident. These benefits cover the employee in the event they are not able to work for an extended period of time.

Charlie Crist, governor of the State of Florida, signed a new workers' compensation bill into law which puts a cap of $1,500.00 on the attorneys' fees that an injured worker can pay their lawyer on a workers' compensation claim.

Unfortunately, this unfair law has the effect of limiting an injured employee's access to legal representation.

A friend of mine has written an in-depth article on workers compensation law which I think is beneficial to share with you.

Thank you for visiting our blog.

Sustaining an injury due to a car accident, slip and fall, defective product, or any other situation can be very difficult both emotionally and financially. You may miss work and have mounting medical bills. You may require surgery. It is important that you understand that if you suffer an injury due to someone else's negligent act, you may be able to recover money for medical bills, rehabilitative or ongoing care, emotional pain and suffering, lost wages, lost earning capacity, physical disability, disfigurement, permanent scars, loss of enjoyment, loss of love and affection, mental disability, property damage, and punitive damage.

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